Story Club at the Abbey

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Orlando Story Club is held at The Abbey, (100 South Eola Drive, Orlando, FL 32801) and offers an evening of entertainment where the audience creates the show!

Everyone is invited to throw their name in a hat for a chance to tell a story. Ten participants are chosen from the hat. Stories must be no longer than 5 minutes in length, told without notes, and must connect with the theme. The results can be unpredictable, sometimes outrageous, sometimes poignant, but always a lot of fun!

Judges are randomly selected from the audience and special story prizes are awarded at the end of the evening. Other audience participation opportunities abound.

Best of all, this evening of fun raises money for a different local charity every month! Story club champion, Danielle Ziss was a host despite having to favor a twisted ankle.

Orlando Story Club was founded by storyteller and filmmaker Robin Cowie (producer of “The Blair Witch Project”).  After participating in the national storytelling series “The Moth,” Central Florida based Cowie sought out to produce the same event here and so Orlando Story Club was born.  The first event, held at Orlando’s East End Market in March 2014, was a standing room only smash hit.  Two years later, Cowie’s popular series caught the attention of Downtown Orlando’s dynamic  Downtown Arts District who teamed up to put on monthly events at The Abbey in Downtown Orlando, furthering the growth of Story Club and the arts.  

The April charity partner was Summer of Dreams.  Since 2011, Summer of Dreams has helped inspire hope and opportunity in those who need it most – homeless students in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties.  The program is designed to provide students with access to food, supervision and engaging activities, as well as financial counseling for parents.  Since 2011, Summer of Dreams has served 5,573 children and is proud of the impact they have had on homeless students and parents.  Their mission is to inspire and offer opportunities to all homeless students and provide a safe, encouraging environment for students to play, dream, and achieve. 

The theme for the next story Club is Smitten Kitten. It will be held on February 6, 2019 at the Abbey. Tickets are $5. Doors open at 7pm.

Ever had a CRUSH? On The Orlando Story Club stage tell us a time when
you got tongue-tied at the mere sight of a certain somebody. Was it
love or just an infatuation? You make eye contact and it’s pure giggles
or you’re full on enraptured. We know the, “I can’t think, I can’t
sleep” routine, but when you do sleep they just invade your dreams,
which is kinda nice actually.

From your brother’s friend who followed you around like a puppy in
that unrequited love story, to the neighbors who’ve been married for 67
years, to your art teacher who made “the colors, like, come alive.” Love
comes in many shades. By the way, pet stories are adorable.

Whatever it was, spin some silk from the cocoons the butterflies left
in your tummy and put those moments on display. What did they do that
set you off, or turned you on? Tell us who (or what) stole your heart.

All proceeds support the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando

Admission: $5 (additional donations encouraged)

Doors open @ 6:30pm. Show starts @ 7pm.

Five Centuries of Florida Cattlemen History

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Photographer Bob Stone gave a talk at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in the Capen House (633 Osceola Avenue, Winter Park, FL). It was a crowded event so seating was limited. I went back to the car and got my artist stool so I could get to work sketching. A few seats did remain open, so Pam managed to sit as well.

The cattlemen history began way back in the 1500s when Spanish settlers first brought cattle to Florida. Raising cattle has been a long tradition in Florida. One cattlemen explained it this way, “You can plant crops, but at the end of the harvest you have to load that crop onto the train. The cattle just walk onto the train themselves.” It is possible that the word cowboy originated as a derogatory reference to blacks who worked raising the cows. One woman in the back row was a real character who clearly has been raised in the cattle culture. She pointed out that some whips used to be 15 feet long and someone she knew could flick a match out of your lips from 15 feet away.

Bob had an amazing collection of historic photos that showed how raising cattle has changed over the years. Ranchers used to create cattle “dips,” or troughs in the ground and fill them with a poison that killed the bugs. When development encroached, these toxic sites had to be cleared.

Christianity has long been ingrained in cattleman culture. One photo showed a cowboy being baptized in a metal cattle trough, while other photos showed bull riders praying before getting on the back of a bull.

After the talk, Rachel Frisby invited everyone to see the exhibit, “Lay of the Land: The Art of Florida’s Cattle Culture.” This show, in collaboration with the Florida Cattleman’s Foundation, explored the 500 years of Florida cattle culture through art and hand-crafted items such as saddles and spurs. My favorite discovery at the exhibit was the sketchbooks of Sean Sexton. He has been documenting life on a cattle ranch in his sketchbooks since 1973. I desperately wanted to flip through the sketchbooks, but they were behind glass.

The Collective

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The Collective was launched in early 2017. The idea was to bring
together Central Florida’s nonprofit community and empower the region’s
change leaders. As a new organization big
strides were made in 2017.  The Collective, approved nearly 400 members, hosted 10 gatherings, launched a website and social media accounts, worked with several new organizations, including Opera Del Sol and Immerse, held monthly “Breakfast Breakout Sessions” at the Citrus Club and hosted the inaugural Change Everything Awards.

Each month, The Collective hosts several events and training
opportunities with the goal of sharing ideas, learning from proven
social innovators and creating a community of like-minded passionate
advocates. Those events include a membership-wide meeting, after-work
networking, and a breakfast learning session. This meeting in July was held at the Sanctuary, which has an open community room on the second floor.

Jon Busdeker introduced Mayor Buddy Dyer. The Mayor pointed out that he was so successful because he surrounded himself with truly talented people and he trusts them to do their best. Ideas are shared and nourished. It is rare to hear a politician talking about collaboration in a non-partisan way. It is a simple formula that works here in Orlando. “My hope is the history books will reflect that the Dyer administration
asked citizens to imagine a great city and created just that,” he said. His administration has tackled some big and costly construction projects which have brought Orlando a new Amway Arena and the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Slowly, Orlando is growing up to possibly one day become a world class city rather than a suburb just north of the theme parks.

Martin Luther King Day in Winter Garden

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Pam Schwartz and I drove to Winter Garden to experience the Martin Luther King Day parade. When we arrived, we realized Plant Street was closed off for the parade, so we parked a block East in a small park on the biking trail. When we walked back to the intersection of Dillard and Plant Street, the parade had just started. The parade was organized to celebrate and honor this great leader of the civil rights movement. This was the first time the parade was being held in downtown Winter Garden. The parade staging area was in an empty parking lot across from the Foundation Academy North Campus. Two police motorcycles were flashing their lights.

Young cadets in white uniforms held a banner and stock marching rifles. The U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps is a national youth leadership development organization that
promotes interest and skill in naval disciplines while instilling strong
moral character and life skills through leadership and technical
programs modeled after the Navy’s professional development system.

The parade was small to say the least. Maybe 20 to 30 people and a few miniature ponies were in the parade line up in the parking lot. Because of this, I knew that I didn’t have enough time to sketch. Pam and I decided to walk along with the parade towards the park where the Farmer’s market is usually held. We walked the parade route at the same pace as the parade. The most interesting “float” was a pick up truck with a lawn maintenance trailer behind it. A preacher shouted a sermon from the back of the pick up towards his “congregation” who sat in the trailer. I never actually heard what he was shouting.

When we got to the end of the parade, at the Downtown Pavilion, we followed the sound of music to the main stage. A blues band was on stage along with two red, white, and blue balloon pillars topped by large Mylar stars. One guitarist got up to the microphone at the front of the stage, and I thought he was going to sing so I started sketching him. His guitar strap broke and he sat back down to fix it. He was replaced by Willie C, who is 94 years old and knows his way around the blues.

A line of kids from an art group called Art After 5 stood on stage, and each in turn got up to the mic to say what their dream for the future was. It is heart warming to hear kids innocently proclaim that they would like to see a world without racism or sexism. The sun blinded me from the sketch page and I had to wipe a tear from my eye. One of the children had a fine set of lungs, and she sang “Climb Every Mountain.”

8th Annual Night of Fire at Crealde School of Art

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Each year, Crealde School of Art (600 Saint Andrews Blvd Winter Park, FL) opens its campus at night for guests to explore during the Night of Fire. Coming straight from teaching at Elite Animation Academy, I arrived late. I quickly wandered around searching for a subject to sketch. The outdoor kiln was glowing hot. In the courtyard there was a Raku and horse hair firing in progress in a much smaller kiln. Outdoor torch cutting and blacksmith demonstrations were going on, but there was a line to get in, so I skipped those options.

From the small foot bridge, I saw the light and fire painting demonstration on the lake. A small row boat was in the middle of the lake and someone stood and twirled a sparkler. It was quickly released and flew off into the water sizzling out. It wasn’t much of a sight but the point was that people could take open exposures and the light would create a pattern on the final shot.

Cats in the House Band was performing on the back patio. I decided to sketch them. Pam was going to meet me there, so I sent a photo her way via messenger so she knew where to find me. Before I got a line on the sketch the band took a break. Rather than hope they might start playing again, I wandered off again and settled on sketching the fire pit. Some people sat here to eat their Peruvian Food truck fair.

A storyteller sat and told tales around the fire. When Pam arrived she sat close and listened. One story was about a magical blank book that was given to a couple which could be used to record each day’s good memories and bad memories. I assumed the blank book might be a sketchbook. The couple recorded their memories diligently at first but then got lazy and started to skip days. Soon, they were skipping weeks at a time letting memories slip by because to the stress of everyday life. At the end of the year they opened the book and relished in seeing their memories relived. The good memories were vibrant and fresh. They wished they had been better about keeping them alive. The bad memories however slipped away on their own, becoming distant and faint.

The fire snapped and crackled with embers floating up into the night sky. Some people recognized me and we joked as I kept sketching. As I worked to finish, I realized that people had left, and the event was winding down. Pam and the storyteller spoke about how oral histories help to keep stories alive. They exchanged cards. Their core missions seemed much aligned. With the fire embers smoldering we walked out to the parking lot and decided to get some groceries at the Publix supermarket next door.

Weekend Top 6 Piicks for January 26 and 27, 2019

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Saturday January 26, 2019

8am to 1pm Free. Parramore Farmers Market. The east side of the Orlando City Stadium, across from City View. 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. Sanford Farmers Market. First and Magnolia Sanford.

10:30pm to 12:30am Free with dinner reservation. Son Flamenco. Ceviche Tapas Orlando, 125 W Church St, Orlando, FL. Hot blooded flamenco dancing.



Sunday January 27, 2019

10am to Noon Free. Heartfulness Relaxation and Meditation Class. University, 5200 Vineland Rd, Orlando, FL 32811. The Method of Heartfulness A simple and practical way to experience the heart’s unlimited resources.

Noon to 2pm Free but get some fish. Florida Gospel Jam. Fish on Fire 7937 Daetwyler Drive Belle Isle FL. Every 2nd and 4th Sunday.

10pm to Midnight Free. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL.  Free comedy show! Come out and laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings House Tour

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 Pam Schwartz and I drove to Cross Creek, Florida to see the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home. Her cracker-style home and farm, where she wrote her Pulitzer prize-winning novel The Yearling and other wonderful works of fiction, has been restored and is preserved as it was when she lived there.

She was born on August 8, 1896, in Washington, DC. In 1933, after the publication of her first book, she and her husband Charles were divorced; living in rural Florida did not appeal to him.

Her biggest success came in 1938 with The Yearling, a story about a Florida boy, his pet
deer, and his relationship with his father, which she originally intended
as a story for young readers. It was selected for the Book-of-the-Month
Club, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1939. MGM purchased the rights to the film version, which was released in 1946, and it made her famous. Gregory Peck who starred as the father in the film adaptation is said to have stayed as a guest in Marjorie’s Cross Creek home.

Marjorie loved the local characters who inspired the characters in her books. One cantankerous woman described by the author as an “angry and efficient canary” was enraged by how she felt she was depicted in one of the books. She sued the author for $100,000 in defamation. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge, but the case was overturned in an appellate court and the author was ordered to pay the woman $1 in damages. This was also a victory, but Marjorie must have payed lawyers plenty of money to defend herself. After this case she never again wrote about her Cross Creek neighbors. Hardened Florida neighbors would never again appear in the pages of her books. They just weren’t worth it.

The cracker home is lovingly restored to look exactly as it did when Marjorie lived here. Chickens ran around the grass and a small orchard of orange trees was still in the back yard. She wrote about the struggle of trying to save a crop of these oranges from the freeze. In 2007, the house and farm yard was designated
as a National Historic Landmark, our nation’s highest historic
recognition. Marjorie died on December 14, 1953 in St. Augustine, Florida.

After touring the house, we went to the Yearling Restaurant (Hawthorne, FL) for pulled pork and a chance to sketch a local guitarist in the rustic setting. The musician seemed convinced I would make a mint on the sketch and seemed upset that I wasn’t cutting him in on the yet-to-be-seen profits. Then we hiked in the Ocala National Forest where The Yearling was filmed. Only hints of the foundations remained of the movie set. We also ran across an old cracker cemetery with maybe 10 graves from early settlers. Hiking out we came across two hikers who had on short shorts and were carrying gardening sheers. There were two paths into the forest and they asked us how long a hike it was. Rather than take a path they started cutting their own path into the forest with the sheers. Pam kept looking back convinced they might be murderers. She was ready to take out the one on the right. The trail head is out in the middle of nowhere and oddly the two mystery hikers had no car parked at the entrance. It must be miles to the next town. Maybe they jogged, but they didn’t seem winded.

In skimming news posts, I found out that bodies are always being found in Ocala National Forest. In 2018, a dismembered female torso was found by a hiker in the 387,000-acre forest. Police send out a photo of a beautiful robin tattoo in the hope that someone in the community might identify the remains. Within 24 hours, she was identified as Robin Lee Upson of Belleview, Fl. Christopher Lee Takhvar, 43, of Hawaii, became the number one suspect
after Upson’s mother told detectives that her daughter and Takhvar had
argued.

Takhvar was Upson’s business partner and had traveled from Hawaii to help her with some work.

While at Upson’s residence, the two began to argue. During the argument, he killed Upson and then stole her van. The van was later found in Orlando.

Takhvar claims that he killed Upson in self-defense. He stated that she came at him with a knife so he defended himself with a chainsaw
that he “accidentally turned on” as he was defending himself. He then “accidentally” decapitated the woman and dismembered her body with the chainsaw. He cut off her arms, legs,
and head and buried them in the backyard of Upson’s home. He then
discarded her torso in the Ocala National forest.

Takhvar fled to Texas where
he was arrested on August 15, on an outstanding Marion County warrant
for Grand Theft Auto. 

Paint Nite at Roque Pub

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I went to Roque Pub, (3076 Curry Ford Rd, Orlando, FL 32806) because I saw an invitation for a Paint Nite, which I figured would be a great subject for a sketch. The invitation explained that pub patrons could create art over cocktails while guided by a professional artist and party host. Would be artists and friends would spend two hours drinking, laughing, and flexing their creative muscles. It sounded exciting.

Roque Pub used to be called Rogue Pub. I always find it odd that they changed the name. Roque is an American variant of croquet played on a hard, smooth
surface. It was popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed
“the Game of the Century” by its enthusiasts. I have never heard of it. Perhaps the pub name was changed because it was too close to Rogue Ales, which is an award winning brewery founded in 1988 in Ashland, Oregon, United
States. Either way, Roque it is an odd name.

Sooo… I stopped in and got a beer. Long story short, there was no Paint Nite. It was canceled because no one signed up. A few folks were drinking at the bar, so I got to work and started sketching. There was an exciting game of darts going on. At Walt Disney Feature Animation, dart championships swept through the studio. With some of the most talented artists in the world playing, it was a badge of honor to even compete. Artists have some wicked eye/hand coordination, so I got my butt handed to me on many an occasion while trying to compete. I never returned to Roque to see if they do hold a paint nite. Who goes to a pub to get creative? Far better to go to knock back a few too many beers.

The Future of Arts and Culture in Florida

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The recently elected Anna Eskamani and Carlos Guillermo Smith, also an activist and member of the Florida House of Representatives, hosted this Legislative Town hall session about the Future of Arts and Culture in Florida. Florida is now ranked 48 of 50 in Arts and Culture funding. Last year the state only allocated 2.7
million for arts and culture non-profits, down from 25 million the previous year. Arts funding dropped an astronomical 90%. Orlando has a vibrant theater community along with world class museums and cultural centers. The bottom line is that the arts cannot grow if there is no investment in the future.

Florida is a very red Republican state. Orlando is a tiny blue bubble of artistic liberalism. After Pulse there was no response from Florida Representatives, but that might be because they were out of session at the time. The Marjorie Stoneman Douglas mass shooting however happened while representatives were in session. $400 million dollars were allocated to fund security in the schools across the state including $67 million to arm teachers with guns. This is a solution that only makes sense in the the twisted minds of representatives in the gunshine state. Carlos explained that this was used as an excuse to cut funding for the arts.

On March 13, 2019 Terry Olsen is organizing a bus trip up to Tallahassee for Arts Advocacy Day. It is a chance to meet representatives face to face and insist that the $61 million Department of Cultural Affairs grant program (DCA) be restored. The trouble with Florida Republican representatives is that they consider funding going to the arts to be funding LIBERAL Arts. The message that needs to reach their ears is that there is a solid return on investment. For every $1 invested
in arts we see $5 to $11 in economic activity in return. It should be easy to see that arts and culture can encourage people to visit Florida.

A panel was seated at a long table consisting of Flora Maria Garcia from United Arts, Elizabeth Thompson from the Wells Built Museum, Joanne Newman from the Science Center, Mitzi Maxwell from Mad Cow Theater, and Chris Barton. Each offered their insights into the challenges of being a non profit struggling to get by with the ever-shrinking budget. Mitzi has been applying for grants for over 10 years. In the past, those grants were enough to help her theater grow but now all the organizations are fighting for the same few dollars. There used to be more DCA grants in the past. Funding to DCA has been cut as well.

Since Florida is 48th out of 50th in terms of supporting the arts, I decided to research the states that are doing a much better job at supporting the arts. Washington D.C topped the list and Hawaii came in third. Since Washington is shut down, I’m thinking it might be time to move to Hawaii. It is warm, just like Central Florida but less humid, and people really appreciate and invest in art there.

Mrs Wilkes Dining room in Savannah Georgia

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I was traveling through Georgia with Pam Schwartz, John Naughton and a relative of John’s named Ben Wozniak. John had researched Mrs. Wilkes’ Dining room (107 West Jones St. Savannah, GA 31401) and it was the main reason we stopped in the historic city.

A line gathers each morning at 11 o’clock. That line literally wraps around the block. When the doors open, the lunch crowd finds seats at one of the large
tables-for-ten shared by strangers. Tabletops are crowded with platters
of fried chicken and cornbread dressing, sweet potato souffle,
black-eyed peas, okra gumbo, corn muffins and biscuits. We had our choice of some 24 food options all on one table! The menu changes
daily so regulars can have something different every day. There is a unique pleasure of having a meal shared with neighbors and
strangers. Lunch is $23 per person but reservations do not exist. You just need to get in line and hope to get in. The place is closed in January so don’t drive up that way immediately.

This dining experience was the highlight of the trip. You had to pace yourself to be sure you tried everything but had seconds of what you truly loved. It was like having Thanksgiving with strangers. John purchased the Mrs. Wilkes’ Cookbook and Pam took down some of the recipes, so we will be trying some of these traditional southern dishes.

We also explored some of the city’s historic squares in Savannah to walk off the huge meal we had. The final destination of the trip was Charleston, South Carolina where Pam and I visited my sister Shirley Steinmetz. The three of us went to the River Dogs’ baseball stadium where the game was interrupted by a complete solar eclipse. We had the necessary solar glasses to watch the sun as it was eclipsed. When the day turned black everything became completely silent. Then as the sky began to turn light again, the game resumed.

My sister loves genealogy, as do Pam and I, so there was plenty to talk about at my sister’s house. Pam has encouraged me to do research online and I am amazed at the amount of legal documents that are available at the press of a button. I am able to quickly find source documents to verify all the information on my tree. There are still road blocks, but the journey is what is exciting.

The road trip back to Orlando was as much fun as the trip north to Charleston. John Naughton did all the driving. He and Pam discussed recipes in the front seats and I dozed off in the back seat as the miles flew by.