Cabana Bay Beach Resort has a 1950s themed ambience.

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Cabana Bay Beach Resort, 6550 Adventure Way, Orlando, FL, is a new place to stay right near Universal Studios. It is no more than a quarter mile from my studio and I watched as it was built up on a huge dirt lot next to the theme park. The lobby has retro themed 1950s TV commercials running all day. The pool area is expansive with a large lazy river around the perimeter. I walked in to see how the of he half lives. Tourists have it made in Orlando. Yet this retreat is far removed from the culture that can be found in Orlando every day.

This central a rest o the resort has all possible amenities lit restaurants, movie screenings, and constant watery bliss. Why would tourists brave the hot parks when they can relax here. Tickets were purchased and commitments made so most of these people were probable recovering from the sweat and heat stroke they endured in the parks. Guests benefits include, early Universal Studios Park admission to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, one hour before the theme park opens (valid theme park admission required)
and complimentary shuttle buses and walking paths to both Universal Orlando theme parks and Universal City Walk.

With the T-Rex at Downtown Disney.

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A former Disney Feature Animation background painter was having a show at one of the Disney Stores at the Downtown Disney.The invite was wrong however and he wasn’t in the store when I stopped by to say hello. Since I was there, I walked around to find something to sketch. The Marketplace is a hectic place to sketch. Everyone seems to be in a rush to make last minute purchases before they head home. The eye catching Dinosaur bones stop tourists in their tracks for a brief photo opportunity. The Dinosaurs are part of a themed restaurant Called T-Rex Cafe, (1676 Buena Vista Dr, Orlando, FL) that is always jam packed. They serve adventures rather than ordinary meals. American eats plus animatronic dinosaurs and an underwater aquarium draw crowds in Downtown Disney.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for March 26th and 27th.

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Saturday March 26, 2016

9am to 3:30pm $40 NYC Urban Sketch Workshop. Pearl Studios which are located at 519 Eight Avenue. That’s located between West 35 and 36th Streets. We reserved Studio F, which is on the 12th floor. I will be offering an Urban Sketching workshop in NYC. The primary focus will b on populating a sketch wit multiple people and in the afternoon, we will sketch on location in the city. I’m very excited to meet about 40 New York City Urban Sketchers. Afterwards, we will go o for drinks and perhaps more sketching.

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

8pm to 11pm Free but get a drink. Jazz Saturdays. Cork and Fork American Grill5180 S. Conway Road, Belle Isle, FL. Jazz Saturdays will feature live entertainment by Jazzanova musicians. Cork & Fork American Grill happily announces the launch of a new menu starting Wednesday, March 23, featuring even more tasty dishes made fresh daily to add to Cork & Fork’s already popular menu that’s made the Belle Isle eatery a favorite amongst foodies, locals and visitors throughout Central Florida.



Sunday March 27, 2016

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

2pm to 4pm Free. Yoga. Lake Eola Park, 195 N Rosalind Ave, Orlando, FL. Every week.

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

Lake Eola sculptures light up the night.

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Any time I sketch at a venue in downtown Orlando, I park near Lake Eola. At night, the fountain is lit up as we r as the sculptures that were put in last year. They were put in place by an organization called See Art Orlando. This sculpture is called, “Take Flight” by Douwe Blumberg, sponsored by Darden.

Douwe was born in Los Angeles of two amateur artists, his artistic gifts were
evident early on.  During a childhood that was almost a continual art
education, he spent some formative years in Europe being exposed to
western artistic traditions.  Later he attended the University of
Southern California’s prestigious Idyllwild School of the Arts and
Music.  This was followed up with four years of sculpture/metal working
education during which he won many national awards.  His education was
capped by an apprenticeship at a CA art foundry where he mastered the
many facets of creating bronzes.  Hence his “art education” consisted of
a unique and healthy mix of traditional schooling with hands-on
apprenticeship.  He attributes his ability to work in varied techniques
and styles to this style of learning.

Upon graduation however, he did not immediately pursue an art
career.  Instead, he became a professional horse trainer, a career he
pursued for 18 years at his ranch outside of L.A.  Gradually, however,
he started sculpting again, albeit part time, and began accepting
commissions.  As demand for his work grew, he was forced to choose
between the two careers; his lifelong passion of sculpting won out. 
Closing his barn in 2000, he relocated to centrally located Kentucky
where he has a studio and home north of Lexington.  Douwe has completed
well over 200 private and public commissions and has numerous awards,
residencies and shows to his credit.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2.

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Nia Vardalos wrote this endearing and incredibly funny movie about the Portokalos family. I didn’t see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 1, so I went into this premiere rather blind. The line to get into the free screening wrapped around the building. I walked past a guard and asked him if that was the line for the wedding. He said, “That’s the line for the premiere. Not sure what movie it is.” I told him that I had confused the movie for Mama Mia, a musical with music by Abba that I hated. A friend let me know that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, was probably going to be a fun ride. Everyone in line got a card for a free Baklava at Little Greek Restaurant! Not sure if, or when I’ll cash that in.

I was laughing out loud for most of the movie, and fell in love with this crazy family. Nia Plays the part of Toula, who married Ian, which must have caused some chaos in the first movie since Ian isn’t Greek. Probably the most heart warming moment in the movie came when Toula’s father, Gus, met his brother whom the whole family had chipped in with air miles, to fly in from Greece. The brother from Greece resented that his brother left his home country. Gus sent money over seas to prove his success to his brother but the money was always returned. These crusty old men faced off and finally years of resentment melted away and they hugged. I got choked up. After several shots of Ouzo they were laughing like children. In Greek, Gus told his brother that his son in law isn’t bad for a gringo. Ian responds in Greek, “You aren’t bad yourself for a grumpy old man.” They are shocked he has learned Greek and they all have another shot and laughed.

Still working in her parents’ Greek restaurant, Toula’s
daughter Paris is growing up. She is getting ready to graduate high
school and Toula and Ian are experiencing marital issues. It is hard to find romance with the demands of everyday life and the demands of an insanely close family. Toula’s struggle to give her daughter room to grow is beautiful an heart breaking. When Toula’s
parents find out they were never officially married, because a priest forgot to sign the marriage license. Gus wants to immediately get married, but his wife Maria, wants a proper proposal after 50 years together.

Hilarity ensues as the family chips in to make the wedding bigger and better with many tasteless touches. They forget to hire limousines and police officers volunteer get the couple to the church with sirens blazing. The women are jostled and panicked but the men in the back of their cop car are laughing up a storm drinking Ouzo which spills with each sharp turn. The wedding reception is boisterous, loud with plenty of Greek dancing. The movie is a joyous celebration of life with all of its laughter and drama. I had a grand time and the audience applauded when the credits rolled. Definitely get out and see this movie, you will laugh until you cry. The movie opens March 25th at a theater near you.

The Bloody Jug Band performed at the Hourglass.

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John Theisen, the lead singer of the Bloody Jug Band, ordered some cards with a sketch I did of the band at Fringe. We met behind The Hour Glass (480 S Ronald Reagan Blvd Longwood, FL) where we made the exchange. I decided to stay to watch the first set and have a drink. There must have been a comic con convention in town because folks at the next table were dressed in Star Wars regalia. i wish they had made it into the sketch, but they sat down after the scene was blocked in.

The Bloody Jug Band draws inspiration from historic Jug bands of the 1920’s and 30’s as well as the darker side of
Blues and Rock n’ Roll, The Band carves out its own niche in a genre of music that has
never seen such a bloody incarnation. Their high energy dark themed music is quite addictive. I love that tips go into a tiny coffin. Salvador Dali overlooked the performance with a smirk as if in approval of the sinister, surreal lyrics and driving beat.

Watching Basketball at Miller’s.

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It had been a long day. Terry let me know she was going to watch a basketball game at Craig Miller’s Field House (7958 Via Delagio Way Orlando FL). The Portland Pilots were playing the Golden State Warriors. The game was starting late, after 10pm. I arrived first. There was music thumping inside. I waited a few minutes for Terry to pull into the parking lot. We entered together and Terry found a large screen TV behind the bar that had the game on. There were dozens of TVs, each broadcasting a different game. A DJ however was in charge of all the audio. The bar maid couldn’t her us in our attempt to place an order. Terry typed on her phone and showed the bar maid what she wanted. I ordered a Stella. Mostly because I like shouting Stella!

When I started sketching, Terry moved three bar stools away. Since the sketch was started I stayed where I was. A guy ordered a beer and dropped it on the floor between Terry and I. Glass shards and beer splashed everywhere. There was the frantic activity of sweeping up the glass and mopping the beer. On TV the sweat was being mopped off the court. I wondered who each person was at the bar. A couple of women danced to the DJ’s beats. A cheap light show illuminated my sketchbook pink and then blue. The bar maid was quite entertaining. She danced to the songs she liked, and kept dancing as she poured drinks with a flourish. As I finished up the sketch, I paid more attention to the game. The warriors were way in the lead, like 90 to 60. There was no way Portland would catch up in the fourth quarter. The seat beside Terry was leaning forward against the bar like it as reserved. I decided to call it a night. I paid for my $11 drink and went home to get some sleep. I had to teach the next morning.

All about-Race and power near Blue Box 6.

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I had arranged to meet Hurricane Maria at Blue Box 8 near the Lynx Bus Station. 27 Blue Boxes are painted on sidewalks in Downtown Orlando. These boxes
are for panhandlers and buskers. Busking is possible only during day
light hours. Although set up for panhandlers, police often insist street
performers must use the blue boxes. Performing outside the boxes can
result in 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

I arrived a little late and didn’t see Maria. I assumed she was running late and started sketching. My darn cell phone was dead because my car charger was broken. There was no way to contact her. I finished as much of the sketch a I could, and assumed that I could place Maria in the sketch when she arrived. She is a caricature artist and she planned to set up shop in the Blue Box. I probably sketched for an hour and a half, completing most of the watercolor with an open space that I left blank. If anyone reading this is interested, I could sketch you into this incomplete sketch in about half an hour. I will not post the sketch until it has a performer utilizing the box. Become part of The Blue Box Initiative.

I packed up an decided to head home. As I approached a huge construction site near the Bob Carr Theater, I saw Maria talking to several construction workers. She had gone to the wrong Blue Box and was deep in conversation about race and power. Blue Box number 6 had been ripped up due to the construction. As the conversation went on, I realized that the blue boxes represent first amendment zones, where freedom of express to is allowed.

The construction worker was explaining how blacks have been marginalized throughout history. The us Census would redefine the race every time there was census. They were redefined as blacks, negros, African Americans and other names. Poor neighborhoods were fractured and split up with redistricting. He asked each of us where our ancestors came from. Regardless of our past, he said we all have Moorish blood in us. Maria responded, “I prefer to just think of us as the human race.”

He spoke of a true and divine knowledge of yourself, historically speaking. People have been calling themselves everything but what they are, and so they are never able to take their proper place
in the national and international
affairs of men all over the world. they have been mentally robbed of their
inherent
and invincible manhood, by being
robbed of their nationhood.
The west African Moorish Empire expanded into Europe conquering Spain in 711 AD. This was the greatest power in Europe at the time and its influence spread resulting in the Renaissance. Apparently Abraham Lincoln was assassinated because he understood this Moorish commonality. The same was true of Dr. Martin Luthar King. One of King’s aid stepped aside to open a pathway for a sniper’s bullet.

The local school the the worker used to go to used to inspire students to greatness. Then teachers were brought in from out of the community and the students were no longer taught civic pride. Drugs ravaged the neighborhood causing further collapse. These drugs were specifically introduce in impoverished neighborhoods. This backfired however because then others could get cheap drugs there and the drug plagues spread could not be stopped.

With my sketch done, I decided to slip away. Free speech was very much alive near Blue Box number 6. I asked Maria if she was willing to set up for a short time in Blue Box number 8, but she had to get over to Audubon Park where she would be doing caricatures at the Monday night farmers market in the Stardust Video and Coffee parking lot.

The Whale pulls at every heart string.

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The Whale, written by Samuel D. Hunter, and Produced by Beth Marshall Presents will make its Central Florida Regional Premiere on March 18th. I arrived at a dress rehearsal about an hour before the run through of the show. Director, Rob Winn Anderson, wanted to revise several scenes that had kinks to be worked out. Ellie,Rachel Comeau read a book review she had written about Moby Dick. The play is book ended by her heart felt review, and it’s significance only becomes clear as her relation ship with her father Charlie, Michael Wanzie comes to light. The stage set by Tom Mangeri, felt like a diorama on stilts. At key moments in the play, blue and green lights would flicker on beneath the stage making it seem like the set were floating above dock moorings.

Charlie is effectively eating himself to death. His marriage to Mary, Beth Marshall, fell apart when he fell in love with another man. Estranged from his daughter, he wants to get to know her at the end of his life. He bribes her to spend time with him, by offering to help her with her school work, and offering her what turns out to be a sizable inheritance since he never leaves his apartment. Ellie is strong willed, smart, vicious, and sharp tongued but bored by school and her classmates.  She created a blog in which she complains about everyone she knows. 

Liz, Jamie Middleton, is Charlie’s health aid. She also seems scarred by life, and her morose barbed dialogue offers some of the shows biggest-laughs. Elder Thomas, Anthony Pyatt Jr. a Mormon missionary enters Charlie’s apartment to give Charlie gods word. When Liz finds Thomas preaching to Charlie she rips into his beliefs. When Ellie an Thomas meet, she manages to erode his holy facade and she has him smoking weed and confessing that he isn’t exactly who he claims to be. 


Ellie’s harsh embittered view of the world is fueled be be parents divorce. Charlie teaches an online writing course, and his lessons to his students reflect what he wishes he could pass on to his daughter. He implores his students to stop editing and rewriting every sentence. Instead, he begs them to just write from the heart. This brings us back to the moment when he asks Ellie to read her book review. The paper had been given an F because it was a review of the wrong book. Ellie was furious at her father and hadn’t bothered to read the review. She cursed her father’s request to read, not because she hated him, but because she loved him and was furious at how he had let his health go. She had written the book review years before and it highlighted how the book seemed to reflect what was happening in her own life. Although she was angered by life, this paper proved that she had a heart and cared a bout everyone around her. Anyone who could write such a heartfelt review would also have the talent to share many more stories that would touch others. My eyes welled up as she read her paper. Ellie’s eyes welled up as well. For the first time, Charlie rose from his chair and he struggled to cross the room to reach out the his daughter. She was amazing, beautiful and his life’s greatest accomplishment. 


The show combines humor with absolutely heart wrenching sadness. It celebrates what it truly means to be alive, and the strong bond of family even when it is dysfunctional. Although dark and bitter, the show also exudes hope, despite all odds. This
play was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding
New Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play and
won a Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre.


The Whale 

March 18 to April 3, 2016

Thursday 8pm, Friday 8pm, Saturday 2pm (April 2) & 8pm, Sunday 2pm
Industry Night: Monday, March 28

Winter Garden Theatre 160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, Florida

Tickets: $21 – $28

Weekend Top 6 Picks for March 19th and 20th.

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Saturday March 19, 2016 

9am to 2pm Free. Transference. Galloway Community Gallery at the Winter Park Welcome Center, 151 W Lyman Ave,Winter Park, FL. Transference reflects the notion that a contemporary artist’s practice is born of influence, transference, exchange and inheritance. Art is not created in a void; it’s a product of our current time and the place and develops from an awareness of individual and collective experiences. It is a phenomenological exchange, a transference of understanding between artist and viewer. Exhibition opens March 7 and runs through April 3.

List of artists:

Rachel Simmons

Martha L. Lent

Dina Mack

Brittany Metz

Patricia Lois Nuss

Dawn Roe

9am to 6pm All weekend. Free. Winter Park Art Festival. Central Park (Winter Park’s first amendment-zone). Be sure to create something on the opposite side of Park Avenue, or boycott.

5pm to 11pm Free. Cfl Creates the Crooks Club and EDEDRON. The Imperial at Washburn Imports-Sanford 116 E 1st St, Sanford, Florida. Apartment E Frankie presents in the round room “Ededron” inspirational original local artwork. One night only!, CFL creates Collective presents their debut event “The Crooks Club”,and special guests. Acoustic performances throughout the evening in the main room. also: the Apartment YOU installation “works in progress” and as usual we have the room in the back where all are encouraged to bring up to (3) three pieces of art ready to hang that night! No prior drop off on this one.. spotlighting a solo artist in round room monthly, and filling the room on the spot in the back galleries..all mediums accepted! 5-11pm, all ages, meet and greet spotlighted artist meet and greet at 8pm,and the stage shows begin!

Sunday March 20, 2016

1pm to 11pm $8 Will’s A Faire at Southern Fried Sundays Presented by The Lovely. Will’s Pub 1042 N Mills Ave, Orlando, Florida. Will’s A Faire at Southern Fried Sunday Presented by The Lovely. Sunday March 20th. A one day retro, vintage, local and handmade market with live music, food and fun indoors and out!

Bands performing outside from 1:30pm-8:30pm: JUNO smile, Fast Preacher, SKIP, Zap Dragon & The Attack, Oak Hill Drifters, Circa and Timothy Eerie. Inside Will’s, after 7pm: Ben Prestage and The Downgetters! The outdoor music is free to the public and all ages are welcome. Bring the Family! The later inside show is an $8 cover & 21+. Food Trucks: Daydream Pizza, Caro-Bama BBQ and more.

2pm to 5pm Potluck. Crow – Coordinated Response on Wellness. True Serenity, 1100 Montana St, Orlando, FL. Crow – Coordinated Response on Wellness will be born on March 20th.   An explanation of Crow, the principles of Crow and vision will be laid out.  It will be pot luck style.   Please bring something to share or contribute $5 to the space.  “Practice is the hardest part of learning, and training is the essence of transformation.”

― Ann Voskamp

2pm to 4pm $24 – $28. The Whale. Garden Theatre 160 W Plant St, Winter Garden, Florida 34787

On
the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, a six-hundred-pound recluse
hides away in his apartment eating himself to death. Desperate to
reconnect with his long-estranged daughter, he reaches out to her, only
to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen. In this
gripping and big-hearted drama, The Whale tells the story of a man’s
last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected
places. This play was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for
Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play. It won a Lucille Lortel Award for
Best Play and won a Drama Desk Special Award for Significant
Contribution to Theatre.