Lip Sync Battle

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Opera del Sol and Central Florida Vocal Arts hosted a fun evening, of fun-raising, silent auction items, live musical
performances by Opera del Sol Singers and of course Celebrity Lip
Syncing at The Abbey, (100 S Eola Dr #100, Orlando, FL). The catch phrase for the evening was, that it was “for those of us who CAN’T sing- raising money for those who can.” The goal was to have local celebrities compete for the loudest cheers and most outrageous performances.

A single Mic stood on stage along with a drum set. Theresa Smith-Levin stepped up to the mic and introduced the all female Opera leadership team which brought a roar from the audience. Theresa explained that many young performers feel they must leave Orlando to go to larger cities like LA or NYC to pursue their career in the arts. Her hope is that the Opera programs they are promoting might someday find venues and creative opportunities for talent to stay in Orlando.

My expectations were for a pretty tame evening of watching people lip sync. It should be a fun and straight forward sketch opportunity. Those expectations were quickly blown out of the water.  The first act featured news caster, Bob Frier and his support band wearing very fake wigs and lip Syncing to Nirvana. One song involved the submerged baby with a dollar bill dangling in front of it. Giovanna Ciccone danced out and thrashed the plastic baby about with it’s creepy red eyes bulging as it reached for the bill. It was a hilarious moment. A smoke machine billowed a wispy cloud across the stage.

Next Ted Bogert of the Ted Show, took to the stage this time dressed in an opulent rainbow gown and an orange wig that was out of control. Things were happening so fast that I struggled to keep up with the action in my sketch. The crowd went wild when he ripped off the rainbow gown to showcase a tight fitting black dress with fringe that showed plenty of leg. Two sexy backup dancers, Giovanna Ciccone, and Olivia Figh raced on stage to dance behind him.

Next, a county themed Savannah Boan a Gator Land Ambassador, came out with a singing horse. You heard me right, a singing horse. I struggled to get the horse in my sketch, but it was cut in half before I finished getting its misshapen head on the page. Clothes flew off and costumes changed in a blink. The horse team turned out to be two Gator Land Bose including Brandon Fisher first in overalls and then in torn tops and flowing skirts. The audience was up and dancing and clapping to the wild action on stage as I scribbled.

Some sanity returned when Dan Altman and Olivia Figh from Opera del Sol, performed a moment from Phantom of the Opera. She has an amazing range and she brought home Opera del Sol’s mantra to make Opera sexy again. Sabrina Ambra co-host at the News Junkfollowed this up with two amazing back up dancers that were puppets connected to her with a complicated series of poles. I wish she had kept those back up dancers for the duration but like every other act she made a quick costume change which was hilariously difficult to pull off since she got tangles in the web of poles and pant legs. She followed up with some over the top hip rap with two live back up dancers.

Next came a cross dressing bomb shell by Rauce Padgett who is from the Jim Colbert radio show. The crowd absolutely loved him. I sketched madly to try and capture the wild pig tails and skimpy skirt and top. He had a bold, nervous, stiff staccato way of dancing that caught everyone’s attention. Jim Colbert followed up with a fiddle battle with the devil performed by Opera del Sol’s Nichole Dupre. She seemed right at home in her bright red skin and horns whaling away on her fiddle.  Ultimately at the end of the night Rauce won for his stellar performance and he stripped of his top to raise the trophy to the sky. He shouted that he had stripped the prize from Jim Colbert.

This was a fun evening of fun-raising with a flair. As Theresa Smith-Levin said, “We got some strange friends.” That is just what Orlando needs, a taste of strange to keep the arts thriving.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for October 5 and 6, 2019

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Saturday October 5, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. John H Jackson Community Center, 3107, 1002 W Carter St, Orlando, FL. Purchase
quality, fresh and healthy food grown in your own neighborhood by local
farmers, including Fleet Farming, Growing Orlando, and other community
growers.

10am to 4pm Free. Orlando Elks Vintage Faire. Elk Lodge 1079 12 N Primrose Drive Orlando FL.  

5pm to 10 pm Free. The Night Market + Zombietoberfest. Audubon Park Garden District, 3201 Corrine Dr #216, Orlando, FL. The
Audubon Park Garden District’s Night Market at Audubon features locally
and regionally made crafts, food trucks, vintage, art, photography, DJ,
live music, cash bar and fortune tellers. Part of Zombietoberfest, it
is Orlando’s most original Halloween festival.

Plus, enjoy a free
outdoor movie, music, two craft beer gardens, food and drink specials,
free costume contest, and more. Come party under the stars in award
winning Audubon Park Garden District, near Redlight Redlight and Park
Ave CDs. Family friendly! Leashed, vaccinated, well behaved pets
welcome.

Sunday October 6, 2019

9:30am to 12:30pm $275 for 6 weeks of instruction with Thor. Crealde Urban Sketching Class. Crealde School of Art, 600 St Andrews Blvd, Winter Park, FL. Learn
to sketch from subject to the environment. Classroom sessions will
focus on sketching clothed models and progress towards sketching the
model and classroom environment. Learn how to incorporate storytelling
into your sketches in our location sessions. These trips to local venues
will challenge you to use your sketchbook the way a photojournalist
uses a camera. The six-week goal is to produce finished sketches using
pencil, pen, and watercolor within two hours. Skill level: Intermediate.

10am to Noon. Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources. 

Noon to 3pm Donation based. Music at the Casa. Omar Miguel. Casa Feliz Historic Home Museum, 656 N Park Ave, Winter Park, FL. Members
of the public are invited to visit our historic home museum on a Sunday
afternoon to listen to live music and take a tour of our historic home
museum and the James Gamble Rogers II Studio by trained docents. 

The Heavy

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Now that I am instructing an Urban Sketching Class at Crealde School of Art, (600 St Andrews Blvd, Winter Park, FL 32792) I am always looking for inspiring places to sketch around Winter Park. My students advised me that The Heavy (1152 Harmon Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789) might be a fun  place to sketch. They were correct. The Heavy located in the old Lombardi’s warehouse is a fantastic coffee shop that also sells gorgeous plants and furnishings. The loading docks have been converted into luminous plant filled oasis’s.


My students scattered about and sketched the unique setting. Several children were playing on a couch which was caught by one of my students. One member of the staff was clearly an artist herself and loved that we were capturing the ambiance with our sketchbooks. If you check their calendar online you will see weekend Home Barista workshops and an open flower bar. It seems you can learn how to make you own home just as much of an oasis.


The Heavy seems such a strange name for a place that exudes a light and calming vibe. For much of the time while I worked on this sketch a man was getting an education in how to care for the house plant he was buying. Of course most of  my time is spent giving students ideas on composition and structure. I want to be sure that everyone gets some rough sketches from me. At the beginning of the next class I also give them all the sketches I did for each student since a note give to one student might be helpful for another. I love introducing artists to the life affirming habit of sketching daily.

Accidental Historian install.

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At the Orange County Regional History Center, (65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801) I watched as a large cartography sketch by J.O. Fries was projected on a wall  for the Accidental Historian. This Central Florida sketch shows Lake Holden and Lake Jessup. Fries filled book after book with these detailed drawings were done as he paced off the woods and back roads by foot. The land was graphed off into a grid and then details were incorporated with old school pen and ink on paper. Trees look like arrows and wetlands are fields of dashes. His job was to document every mile and yard of the barren Central
Florida landscape. His hand drawn maps documented lakes swamps and dirt
roads that then dominated the landscape. Today Google satellite views
show the same landscape littered with strip malls and suburban sub
divisions.

I helped hand draw one section of this huge wall display. It involved working on each panel while on hands and knees. After a while the repetitive nature of the marks made became second nature. Quite a few different History Center  staff took turns adding to the large hand drawn map, yet it all pulls together in the exhibit.

Because I am interested in family history I was fascinated by the diaries on display and he funeral books citing caused of death for Orlando citizens over the years. Fries daughter wrote intimate diaries in her native tongue which I believe was Swedish. Transcriptions detailed how her family adjusted to the Florida climate.

This is a fun show with many Instagramable selfie moments. The opening of the show had a large image of the Lake Eola fountain half of the image is drawn by me with the rainbow colored amphitheater in the background and the other half is a photo form the 1920s by T.P Robinson.

The exhibit is up through January 20, 2020.

Other events surrounding the exhibition:

First Friday Lunch and Learns

History Center staff offer a behind-the-scenes look at the museum and share their research.

Also a public exhibition of the shortlisted design team submissions will take
place from October 3 to October 9, 2019 at the Orange County Regional History
Center in Orlando, Florida. This will be accompanied by a digital
exhibition of the shortlisted teams’ proposals on the onePULSE design
competition website. The public will have an opportunity to share their
comments.

The six shortlisted teams (in alphabetical order) are:

  • Coldefy and Associés with RDAI, Xavier Veilhan, dUCKS scéno, Agence TER, Prof. Laila Farah
  • Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Rene Gonzalez Architects with Raymond Jungles, Inc.
  • heneghan peng architects, Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Sven Anderson & Pentagram
  • MASS Design Group, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Sasaki, Sanford Biggers, Richard Blanco, Porsha Olayiwola
  • MVRDV, Grant Associates, GSM Project and Studio Drift
  • Studio Libeskind with Claude Cormier + Associés, Thinc, and Jenny Holzer

“Dive-In” Movie Series “Jaws”

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The
City of Winter Park has brought back their successful pool-based
“Dive-In” movie series in the summer, kicking it off with a screening of
cult-favorite, Jaws. The screening was part
of the Parks and Recreation Department’s Family Fun program and was be
hosted at the Cady Way Pool (2529 Cady Way, Winter Park). It was free and family-friendly if your kids
can handle animatronic sharks eating people.

The inflatable movie screen was on the smallish side and we had to wait for it to get dark enough for the movie to start. There was plenty of people watching and I sketched in the pool and life guard before the opening scene. Kids crowded around the screen with pool noodles and one flamingo inner tube.

This is the perfect movie to watch while floating since many of director Stephen Spielberg‘s camera shots are from inches above the water right before the shark attacks. Perhaps some of the shark shock factor has worn off over the years since this is a film screened as often as the Wizard of Oz. But when the driving beat on on John Williams score begins I still get a chill up my spine. I appreciate chief Brody’s problem with residents sitting right in front of him when he is trying to check for sharks. You would be amazed how often people stand right in front of me while I am working, forcing me to look over around or through them to keep sketching.

I loved reading about how this film was made. The mechanical shark seldom worked which might account for how seldom it is seen. Just the logistics of filming on a tiny boat is enough to make anyone sea sick. Then, as well, the weather seldom assisted in the shooting schedule.

What made the pool side screening truly amazing is that there was free popcorn and drinks available. Who could ask for more.

Sette Italian

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By Pam Schwartz

Tom and I love to cook at home, but there are some nights I can’t
handle the thought of having to stop for groceries for something fun and
then cook and clean up. By 9:30 PM all we have accomplished is to have
dinner, albeit delicious.

This random weekday night I was feeling something hearty and just made
the executive decision we should go out. Its never too hard to convince
Tom, so we settled on Sette (1407 N Orange Ave, Orlando, FL 32804) having heard good things about it. We both
love Italian food but rarely eat it out because
we often feel we can do it better at home.

With Sette this was NOT the case. It was *I think* the first time
stateside I’ve ever felt I COULDN’T make something on the same par (at
least not on my first try!) The place has a nice vibe with an open
kitchen layout. I beat Tom there and so we had to do-si-do
seats once he arrived so he could have his preferred view on things for
this sketch.

Tom and I are rarely food compatible. For goodness sakes, the man’s
favorite food is hot dogs. I eat most of what he eats but he rarely
likes to get too adventurous, though he’s gotten much better. I relented
from my wish list appetizer and let Tom get us the
Italian sausage and grapes. I couldn’t quite get behind the idea of hot
grapes and was concerned about the general levels of fennel involved.
The excellent waiter assured me that if I got a bit of each ingredient
in every bite, I’d be pleased, and I was. Surprisingly
so.

For our entrees Tom ordered the Clam Linguini (forgetting he’s not a
huge fan of anything lemony) but he still really liked it, and I had the
Amatriciana Paccheri, the rigatoni gigante was so perfectly al dente,
exquisite, and the dish seasoned so I could only
shake my head to keep myself from crying into the beautiful bowl of
noodles.  Meanwhile, we had waiters, hostesses, and the owner of the
restaurant swing by our table multiple times to check on us and have
small chat. Something I always appreciate, I like
getting to know folks and enjoy the conversation while Tom sketches. 



Trina Gregory-Propst, one of the owners, and I chatted about making ice cream and
flavor profiles, given my recent obsession with it. Tom gets homemade
vanilla chocolate chip (it is all he ever wants), which she laughed
about, while I experiment with honey lavender,
coffee, or sweet corn profiles.

Perhaps not surprisingly, she managed to talk us into dessert. I,
the lemon cake of which I’d heard rumors as to its greatness and Tom the
special chocolate hazelnut creation. They were both really excellent
desserts and enormous in portion.

It is safe to say that Tom and I will definitely be repeat visitors to
Sette, there are more scrumptious sounding items for us to sample.
Definitely the type of place to take your friends and family to for a
nice night out when they are in town.

“Breakfast in Baghdad”

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Vet Voices was launched in 2017 by Scott A. Cook for military veterans, giving them a chance to tell their stories in a theater setting. It is part of the highly successful community outreach program called TheatreCares. Scott stumbled across the idea when he Googles Arts + Military and he found out that arts and health for veterans is a growing national movement. The program was launched when they got a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. What followed was an astounding experience as 10 veterans who knew nothing about creative writing began  developing a play based entirely of their experiences in the military. Over the course of 10 months the vets grew as a team building their self confidence as they uncovered and relayed the stories that were  once only distant and hidden memories.

This sketch was done at their first performance back  in 2018. This production entirely written and performed buy the vets was called Breakfast in Bagdad directed by Mark S. Graham. The theater was a safe space for healing and the raw emotions bubbled to the surface mixed with humor and humanity. A simple American flag acted as the backdrop for the performers. A military doctor was overwhelmed by the carnage he faced when he was dropped into battle. An injured vet recounted with humor his decision to talk to a military recruiter. A woman relived the danger of being in a mans army. Every vet also had the common experience of trying to adjust to life after war and hoping to achieve some degree of normalcy. Bob Skillman spoke about the importance of the 4th of July for him and his family.

The 2019-20 sessions will now focus on music and theatre, whether it be
singing, song writing, playing an instrument or just being behind the
scenes to produce the Final Presentation in June of 2020. TheatreWorks Florida announced that the State of Florida Division of
Cultural Affairs has approved an NEA Partnership Grant in the amount of
$10,000 to continue the company’s highly acclaimed community outreach
branch. Recruitment for the Vet Voices 2019-20 program is already in progress
until Oct 10, 2019. The program does have a participant cutoff
so sign up early. For more information and to register for the program,
please visit TheatreWorks Florida’s website at TheatreWorksFL.org or
contact Abel Gonzales, TWF Company Manager, at:
vetvoices@theatreworksfl.org | 407.340.0473.

VIP Opening of Accidental Historian

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The evening of September 21, 2019 was the VIP reception for Accidental Historian at the Orange County Regional History Center (65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL 32801). This is the first exhibit to feature sketches from the Orlando Urban Sketchers group. 

The premise of the exhibit is that artists,
bloggers, urban sketchers, photographers, and more could be historians without even realizing it. In this exhibition, created patrons, learn how individuals who are
absorbed in documenting the world of today accidentally become some of
Central Florida’s finest historians for the future. You can catch a glimpse into
some of the museum’s favorite collections that were created capturing the moments more
than 100 years ago.

The Accidental Historian features both historic and
contemporary work and collections, including drawings by the renowned
artist and teacher Ralph Bagley, Urban Sketchers Orlando, poetry by
Orlando’s inaugural poet laureate Susan Lilley, audiovisual work by food
blogger Ricky Ly, historic images by photographer T.P. Robinson, and
more.

A pillar of my sketchbooks from eight years of my daily sketching are in a glass case in the center of the room. The corner of the room is designed to look like an open spiral bound sketchbook and reproductions of sketches done by members of Orlando Urban Sketchers are scattered across the spread along with biographies and information about the artists.

I knew going into the reception that I wanted to sketch the huge transparencies that had been printed of a shuttle launch. They were framed in light boxes which made them glow as bright as an actual launch. A wall was dedicated to the people of central Florida over the years and a sketch I did of a flea market blues performer fit in snugly.

This exhibit is on display through January 19, 2020. Be sure to stop by the History Center and check it out.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for September 28 and 29, 2019

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Saturday September 28, 2019 

10am to 5pm. Adults $8. Accidental Historian. Orange County Regional History Center 65 E. Central Blvd. Orlando, Florida 32801. You might be a historian without even realizing it! That’s certainly
true of many bloggers, urban sketchers, photographers, and more. In this
engaging exhibition, created at the History Center, learn how
individuals who are absorbed in documenting the world of today
accidentally become some of Central Florida’s finest historians for the
future. Catch a glimpse into some of our favorite collections that were
created for the now – more than 100 years ago.

The Accidental Historian features both historic and
contemporary work and collections, including drawings by the renowned
artist and teacher Ralph Bagley and Urban Sketchers Orlando, poetry by
Orlando’s inaugural poet laureate Susan Lilley, audiovisual work by food
blogger Ricky Ly, historic images by photographer T.P. Robinson, and
more. Also on display is a tower of my sketchbooks from documenting Orlando Arts and Culture over the last 8 years.

7pm to 9pm  Free. Brewery Tour. Orlando Brewing, 1301 Atlanta Ave, Orlando, FL.

10:30pm to Midnight. Free but get food and or drink. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801. 

Sunday September 29, 2019

11am to Noon. $5 Yoga. Lake Eola near red gazebo. 

Noon to 2pm Free. Bobby Koelble Presents Jazz in the Garden. 1300 S Denning Dr, Winter Park, FL 32789.  Join
us as we enjoy an afternoon of electric Jazz music, tasty food, craft
cocktails, and shopping in a beautiful, serene setting all while helping
to benefit Mead Botanical Garden.

Bobby Koelble Presents Jazz in
the garden, is a series of Jazz concerts that will be hosted by Mead
Botanical Garden. The shows, that will fall on the last Sunday of the
month from September thru November, will consist of world class
musicians performing a collection of your favorite Jazz standards with a
twist. 

There will be food and beverages available for purchase,
a shopping area curated by Suzette’s One Of A Kind Finds, as well as a
limited number of VIP passes which will include a brunch buffet catered
by Bites and Bubbles, beer or cocktail and a VIP viewing area.

7:30pm to 9:30pm $10-$20 suggested donation. Please also bring food or wine to share.  CF2’s 7th Annual Composer DIY Salon Concert.  Timucua 2000 S Summerlin Ave, Orlando, Florida 32806. For
seven years, Central Florida Composers Forum (CF2) has been offering
its members a first-come, first-on, get-er-done yerself opportunity to
present work to the Orlando/Central Florida public. The composers
themselves perform or arrange for the performers. That always means a
wider variety of sonic possibilities than a more typical, curated CF2
concert featuring a unified instrumentation.

This program
features Rebekah Todia’s Crossing The Bar, for piano and voice; Melody
Cook’s For Two Voices, No. 2, for clarinet and piano; Holly Cordero’s
Personified Bliss, for string quartet, Bob Jr.’s Conjure the Storm, for
piano, guitar, bass, and drums; Paul Austin Sanders’ electronic
compositions Danze Africanne, Spirit of the East, and Bop Latinesque;
and premieres of Alex Burtzos’ X Codes, for violin, clarinet, and piano,
and also his Perforation, for solo piano.

All ears are welcome.

Everyone Can Code at Full Sail

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This free workshop at Full Sail University was based on the premise that coding is an essential skill for helping students thrive in a technology-driven future. Learning to code unlocks creativity, develops problem-solving skills, and opens career paths.

Everyone Can Code, is a free comprehensive curriculum that makes it easy to teach coding to students from kindergarten to college. With teacher guides and lessons, you can introduce coding concepts visually on iPad in elementary school, move to writing code with the Swift Playgrounds app in middle school, and support students in building iOS apps on Mac with Xcode in high school and beyond.

Whether your students are first-time coders or aspiring app developers, youʼll have all the tools you need to teach coding in your classroom.

In the workshop, we learned why Swift is the best language for teaching and learning coding, as well as for developing powerful apps.
Swift Playgrounds, is a revolutionary app for iPad that makes getting started with coding fun and interactive.
Hear about App Development with Swift, a high school and college curriculum for Mac that shows students how to create apps from start to finish. I seemed a bit like the odd duck in the room since I didn’t have an open laptop in front of me.

After the seminar I returned to my studio and played the Swift Playgrounds game and actually found I was  learning coding skills fast. After several weeks of coding to solve puzzles I hit a road block that I could not solve. The coding was put on the back burner as I focused on my main passion which is creating art. Perhaps there is a middle ground and I may start playing with code again. Even in the workshop they said that learning code on your own is a real challenge. But after this workshop I realized I could get young students started on learning code. I would be a fun course to teach if I stayed ahead of the learning curve of the students.