COVID Dystopia in Florida Politics

Posted on by Thor

COVID Dystopia has made an appearance in Florida Politics. In any interview there end up being things you wish you had said. For instance one statement made it seem inevitable that I will be infected. However to this day I have not caught COVID.

In the first stage of the pandemic people banded together and fought the virus with the only tools they had, namely masks and social distancing. When vaccines became available people relaxed thinking they were invincible. The vaccines to blunt hospitalizations and death, but they don’t stop infection. COVID has been creating havoc with everyone’s immune system. It is a vascular disease that attacks every organ of the body particularly the heart and brain. Since I value my brain, I still mask indoors and in crowded outdoor settings. We might be done with COVID but COVID is not done with us.

COVID Dystopia will screen at the Orlando Film Festival on November 1 and 7, 2024. The November 1 screening is at 4:15pm and the November 7, 2024 screening is at 2pm, both in theater 9. At 8pm on November 7 is the Awards Ceremony which I will also attend in case I need to pick up another award. The Orlando Film Festival runs from October 31 to November 7 at the CMX PLAZA CINEMA CAFE 155 S. Orange Ave, Downtown, Orlando FL. A one day pass is $20 and you can see a whole lot of films in one day. When I attend a film festival, I treat it like a movie marathon. If you go to a screening of COVID Dystopia, I will be easy to find as the one person in a KN-95 mask.

COVID Dystopia: In the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival

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COVID Dystopia is now an Official Selection of the Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival. It will screen online starting Thursday, November 14, 2024 to Sunday, November 24, 2024. It will be  available to watch in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio.

I have seem three of the other films listed near COVID Dystopia at other film festivals. Complications is a wonderful film from Norway about a virtual dominatrix who berated an old man on the other end of a Zoom call. The heated moment goes haywire when he collapses from a heart attack. She then dose everything in her power to save his life. There is a tenderness to her when the speak again, but tenderness isn’t what he needs. Confessions was a charming and hilarious film about two nuns who find another sister dead at the alter. They confide in one another considering what they have not yet done with their lives. The older actresses were stellar and this is one film I hope becomes a feature film. Dandelion is a computer animated film about a robot who breaks away from his drudgery of a job when he discovers a dandelion. His curiosity leads to the chaos of joyous discovery for all.

I will be flying to Pittsburgh for one day to see a few films and go the the awards ceremony. I need to leave myself open to the possibility that I might bump into someone who understands and needs my off balance world view.

All That Jazz

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The Free Spring Symphonic and Jazz Concert was held at  Valencia College East Campus (701 N. Econlockhatchee Trail Orlando Florida), in celebration of Jewish culture and diaspora, featuring musical selections Fiddler on the Roof,“Scenes from Terezin, and other celebrated standards. This as a fun and lively concert at a large auditorium venue I have never sketched before.

I need to reignite my spidey senses and start finding such events again. For now I need to get out in the yard and start cleaning up branches after Hurricane Milton blew through Orlando. No major damage just a lot of debris.

COVID Dystopia: Jesus Dropped a Cluster Bomb

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In the weeks leading up to the Orlando Film Festival, I feel I should share shots from COVID Dystopia. I do this leading into each film festival.

This festival feels special since the film was created in Orlando and so many of the shots relate to Florida’s failed COVID response. The film has been rejected multiple times for other Florida Film Festivals and I thought it would never be shown in this state.

The animated film is controversial  and rather hard edged. It is perhaps too controversial to be shown at your average Film Festival. When it is shown, it wins awards. It won the Best Short Animation Film Award at the Chicago International Reels Film Festival. It won as the Best Short Short Film at the Berlin Shorts Film Festival, and it has won an Honorable Mention at the Charlotte Film Festival and it was a Nominee for the Best Animated Short at the Iowa Independent Film Festival.

Leu Gardens Plant Sale

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The summer heat wave finally broke after Hurricane Milton blew through Orlando Florida. Outdoor tent sale events proliferate as the weather cools in Central Florida.

This is a pre-pandemic sketch is of the Leu Gardens Plant Sale. I like trying to save plants from lawn jockeys whose whole purpose in life is to mow. blow and murder all plant life. If a plants die their job of riding a mower gets a whole lot easier. Each morning I go for a several mile long hike and gather fist fulls of ground cover that was edged poorly and is left growing partially over sidewalks. I then plant that fist full in the vast dead expanse of a yard. To me, grass is the enemy. It requires too much fertilizer, which runs off into the lake causing algae blooms. I prefer low lying ground covers that never grow high enough to need to be mowed down.

I am sill gathering sticks and twigs from the yard which will be used when it gets cooler to start fires in the fireplace and outdoor fire pit. For two days the neighborhood was magnificently silent. The Orlando Airport had been shut down so the deafening jet engines of planes about to land were no longer heard. The airport opened back up today and at the same time every home owner seemed to feel the need to fire up leaf blowers. They would blow their leaves into their neighbors yards and into the street. Whoever thought it was wise to strap a loud petrol engine to their back should be exiled. What ever happened to the good old fashioned rake?

Macbeth

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The Orlando Shakes will present Macbeth at Fringe Art Space on November 1 and 2, 2024. The play is being performed by UCF Master of Fine Arts students.

In a past production the Orlando Shakes staged this scene in which a darkly clad cast surrounded Macbeth with their faces hidden behind black stockings. In the haunting scene they lay their hands on the king. It is a creepy and inspired staging.

These performances are staged at various venues around Orlando since the Shakespeare Theater is undergoing renovations.

NOVEMBER 1 & 2, 2024

Where: Fringe ArtSpace

54 W Church St Suite 201, Orlando, FL 32801

When:

November 1:

  • Evening: 7:30 – 8:50 PM

November 2:

  • Matinee: 2:00 – 3:20 PM
  • Evening: 7:30 – 8:50 PM

Lake Eola

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I did this sketch before going to a lawyers office in Downtown Orlando for mediation. I lived downtown at the time in an apartment building across from the Abby. This was three years after filing for divorce. I figured it made sense to do what I love before going through this difficult chapter of my life. The band shell was painted rainbow colors after the Pulse nightclub shooting. The Pulse shooting happened shortly after I was asked to leave home in 2016.

When the sketch was done I had just enough time to walk over to the lawyers office. I had to wait in the lobby and the place seemed dead. After maybe an hour I was called in and told that my X simply had not shown up. She worked in a building maybe a block away, so it is hard to imagine that the walk was difficult.  The day was not a complete waste since I got a decent sketch.

There would be several more meditations, each more painful than the last. The final mediation resulted in my giving away half of my existing art work just so I could get on with my life. I was working on a mural that depicted the City Beautiful at the time.

Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving is the time that all the Christmas decorations come out. I visited my sister in Port Charlotte for Thanksgiving and she took me to Fisherman’s village in Punta Gorda.

Fisherman’s Village is a small shopping center set out on the docks. It is a Quaint riverfront complex of specialty shops and casual restaurants, plus a marina and lodging on the second level. I never imagined what it might be like to live in a small shopping mall. These deer are made of stiff wire wrapped with fabric. I’m sure there are Christmas light inside of them that make them glow at night. In Florida the richest colors can be seen in the day light with rich green foliage and bright flowers. Winter is the best season to be sketching outside in Florida.

Reiter Park

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I went on a sketch outing with the Orlando Urban Sketchers to Reiter Park, (311 West Warren Ave, Longwood, FL). One of the sketchers Greg Bryla through Dix.Hite + Partners, was involved with the design of the architectural landscaping of the park. I rather liked the sweeping circular motifs. On the top of a stair stepped hill stood a sculpture which features cut out pattern of a flock of birds. Since that patters has hardly visible from the distance I drew it as well across the sky.

The gazebos have barn like roofs which give the childhood drawing impressions of the standard home. Actually a home I am looking at in Upstate New York has a similar roof along with a small widow’s tower.

On October 122, 2020 from 4pm to 9pm there will be a Food Truck Battle and Concert in the Park with Hypersonica. On November 23, 2024 the 48the Annual Longwood Arts and Crafts Festival will be held in the park. That is a two day event starting at 9am each day. March 1, 2025 will be the Longwood Pirate Days Festival from 10am to 6pm.

COVID Dystopia: Honorable Mention

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I am very pleased that COVID Dystopia won an Honorable Mention at the Charlotte Film Festival in North Carolina. COVID Dystopia screened on the morning after Hurricane Helene ripped through North Carolina.

Charlotte is further east than Asheville, North Carolina which was absolutely demolished by the storms flooding. Charlotte on the other hand only saw a solid day of rain and no power outages. By the end of the film festival the sun had come out.

I was trying desperately to find a connecting flight to Charlotte but my film had screened at 10:30PM on the night before in Reno Nevada. There was no flight that could get me to Charlotte by 10 AM the next morning.

The animated film that did win for Best Animated Film was called, Have You Eaten. The jury liked the narrative, and the nostalgia of the story. For COVID Dystopia, the jury considered the film quite different and very vivid, being relatable with great technique and good pacing. Indeed COVID Dystopia challenges the audience to try and keep up with the insane fever dream.