Wednesday Night Pitcher Show: ANACONDA

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On Wednesday June 19th I went to the free weekly Wednesday Night Pitcher Show on the lawn Enzian Theater (1300 South Orlando Avenue, Maitland, Florida). The inflatable screen was on the grass lawn next to the Eden Bar. One of the cooks had his car parked in the wrong place and he had to move it before the movie started, or he wouldn’t be able to get out. The DVD was inserted into a laptop and a small projector transferred the computer image to the screen. Once the play button was pushed, the two projectionists sat in lawn chairs.

Before the screening of Anaconda, there was Jell-o shot movie trivia. A correct answer would get you and you a shot. The Eden Bar had a special evening happy hour from 7PM -11PM.  I was leaning against a tree next to the U-Haul truck that must be used to transport the screen. Behind me was the haunted swamp. Mosquitoes buzzing in my ears added a new dimension to the film. 0ne of the projectionists had bug spray and I almost begged him for some.

Jennifer Lopez played the part of a documentary National Geographic filmmaker seeking a lost tribe in the Amazon. Ice Cube played her cameraman and Jon Voight, who they save from a sunken ship leads them to the hiding place of the fearsome Anaconda, a gigantic snake that swallows a man whole, vomits him up, and eats him again. The snake is worth a fortune if captured, but will they survive? I didn’t stay to find out. The mosquitoes were making me crazy.

Fighting Hunger, Feeding Hope

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The mission at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida, is to fight hunger in the Central Florida community and change lives. One of the innovative ways of doing this is through the Darden Foundation Community Kitchen,  a 2,000-square-foot commercial kitchen space designed as an integral
part of Second Harvest’s holistic approach to fighting hunger and
poverty. In this dynamic space, the food bank offers:

  • A 12-week culinary program focused on food service-based technical, life and employ ability skills training for adults,
  • In-house full-service catering with affordable event space available for your next event, meeting or seminar,
  • Disaster relief food partnerships with the state and community organizations.

But, that’s not all. To engage the community throughout the year, Second Harvest
offer Chef’s Table Dinners, nutrition classes, and cooking lessons.
Also, working closely with local growers and farmers, the Community
Kitchen staff regularly gathers and transforms surplus produce. The
donated product is cooked, flash frozen, and ready to nourish those in
need.

Dawn Viola, Executive Chef and Kitchen Director, was kind enough to let me sketch the kitchen. I arrived in the afternoon and the staff was busy cleaning up. I had a hard time deciding where to sketch without getting in the way. Chef Carmen Ramiz began working with two interns, Judy Alexis and Jerusha Philippe. They began preparing the ingredients for what I believe would become biscuits. There was some eggs, an orange and plenty of butter and flour. Every ingredient had to be accurately measured. Chef Carmen checked and double checked the progress. She was patient and precise, a good teacher. My sketch was done before the mix went in the state of the art ovens.

The Second Harvest Culinary Training Program provides qualified, at-risk
and economically disadvantaged adults with the culinary and life skills
training needed to pursue a sustainable career in the food industry. The culinary students offer a well-rounded set of skills to any food
industry establishment. After completing the 12-week culinary program,
students are prepared for an entry-level culinary position, with the
necessary life skills to survive in this fast-paced industry.

Violin(ce)

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Empty Spaces Theater Company’s director John DiDonna has collaborated with fight choreographer Bill Warriner to bring an experimental show to the stage where “fighting is the story.” Any writer knows that a good story must have a conflict. In this show, the dozen or so actors and dancers are waged in an eternal battle. Some of the fights are staged as a lone violin player is projected on the screen at the back of the stage, thus the title, “Violin(ce)“.

The first scenes revolved around silent film era comic violence.  Then actors recounted school yard brawls. The violence grew personal as a loving couple had their first arguments that progressed to slammed doors and ultimately domestic violence. The line between the erotic and violent was blurred. Actors came at each other with knives, sabers maces and sticks. Blades missed by inches in the type of fights you might have seen in a swashbuckler starring Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone.

McClaine Timmerman performed an incredibly limber and tortured routine, stretching her limbs beyond what should be humanly possible. Dion Smith moved  with a ballerina’s grace around the stage like a hungry lioness as she spared with DiDonna. Of course Cory Violence was in the show. His amazing performance in “The Key of E” and his last name alone guaranteed him a role. In one incredible fight, the entire cast was on stage fighting with weapons. Blades flashes inches from fresh. It is amazing no one was injured. Truth be told, many actors were bruised and battered. Though safely was the rule, adrenalin kicked in. The bruises, abrasions and emotional scars are real.

Each scene in this show is a self contained vignette with each scene building on the last as a sort of history of violence. The action is constant and progressively more intense. The show runs through July 22nd at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center (812 East Rollins Street Orlando FL).
The Saturday, Sunday and Monday shows are at 7:30pm.
Additional Sat/Sun twilight shows are at 4:30pm. Tickets are $20. For reservations please call 407.328.9005 – cash only at door. For credit card pre-orders please use www.redchairproject.com

Weekend Top 6 Picks

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Weekend Top Six Picks.

Saturday July20, 2013

10am to 12pm Free to watch: Splash and Dash, Baldwin Park, New Broad Street and Jake Street. Runners face splash zones, water gun snipers, balloon attacks, slip and slides and more.

11am to 5pm Free: Fairy Festival. Avalon 1211 Hillcrest Street Orlando FL. Craft vendors best dressed Fairy prizes. 

4:30pm and 7:30pm Shows Saturday and Sunday. $20 “Violin(ce)“. Mandell Theater, The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Located in Loch Haven Park across from the Museum of Art. A Violent Fusion of Combat/Dance/Movement/Spoken Word/Aerial. https://www.facebook.com/events/525430484160506/


Sunday July 21, 2013

11am to 1pm Show for a burger: Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s.  110 West Church Street Orlando, FL 32801 Ph (321) 319-0600.

5pm to 7pm Free: Orlando Bike Polo. Langford Park 1808 East Central Blvd. orlandobikepolo.com

9pm to 11pm Free: Comedy Open Mic.  Austin’s Coffee: 929 W Fairbanks Ave Winter Park, FL 32789. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

“The Gun’shine State”

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Over 1200 peaceful protesters marched from Lake Eola to the Orange County Courthouse on Wednesday July 17th to honor Trayvon Martin the 17 year old who went to the store to get some skittles and was shot to death by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford. George Zimmerman had been found not guilty around 10pm this past Saturday by an all female jury in the shooting. Shock and outrage swept the nation.  Protests turned violent in Los Angeles and Oakland, California and across the nation this week. There were no reported problems at the Orlando march. Helicopters  grew louder as the protest approached the courthouse. It had been raining hard as I walked towards the courthouse but the storm clouds passed allowing me to sketch when I arrived.

As protesters filled the plaza in front of the courthouse, they chanted, “What do we want?” and everyone replied “Justice”. “When do we want it?!” “NOW!!” Protesters carried signs saying, “No Justice, No Peace” and “We are Trayvon.” Some protesters wore hoodies which is what Trayvon wore when he was profiled by Zimmerman as someone up to no good.

Natalie Jackson, an attorney for Trayvon’s parents urged protesters to “vote and raise your voices against Florida’s ‘stand your ground’ law”. This law makes it possible for a vigilante to be innocent if they at anytime feel threatened. Travon tried to run, but Zimmerman followed. At some point the teen had to defend himself, but he had no weapon, Zimmerman did. The law needs to change.  Florida is once more a joke because of its warped and backwards justice system. Olumide Ajileye shouted out, from the courthouse steps, “Everyone needs to get involved, this does not end today!”

Someone told me that Zimmerman might even make money on this travesty by suing an NBC show that edited down the 911 call he made on the night of the shooting. The edited audio made it seem obvious that Zimmerman was profiling the black teenager. Zimmerman could become a multi millionaire in a civil case against the media. Reader, Abbe Wise Arenson , suggested a new state motto, which she picked up from a pundit, “gun’shine state” – we need reform!

Police officers kept walking over to see what I was up to. The first officer liked the sketch and each officer in turn came over to look as word spread.  I was just glad they didn’t tell me to get out of the bushes where I was sitting. When the hour long rally ended, protesters quietly drifted away. When I was two blocks away, I realized I forgot my umbrella  back where I had been sketching, When I returned it was still there. I had to get to a final dress rehearsal for “Violin(ce)” at the Shakespeare Theater.

Patterns in Life

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Mark your calendar, the Mennello Museum of American Art (900 East Princeton Street, Orlando, Fl) is  bringing back a series of one-time classes
for adults (and mature high school students). The classes are taught by
UCF art students and include coffee in the morning sessions and a glass
of wine in the evenings.

 
Wednesday, July 24 (6-7:30 p.m.)
Thursday, July 25 (9-10:30 a.m.)

Class Description:

Patterns in Life

Explore intriguing designs created by the Florida Seminoles. Their
native patterns are often inspired by plant motifs and other aspects of
the natural world. Try your hand at designing symbols of your world.

Cost: $20 per session, $15 for MMAA members
Reservations: 407-246-4278
Genevieve.Bernard@cityoforlando.net

3D Blitz

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At the Full Sail 3D Foundations course, Computer Animation and Game Art students get a crash course in the entire animation pipeline. Over four weeks, they learn how to do pre-production, model, rig, animate, light, and render a 3D scene. It’s a lot to do in a month, especially for students new to the Maya software. Some former students came up with the idea of doing a scene in just 24 hours to see just how far they had come.

That was the challenge of last month’s first-ever 3D Blitz event.

Computer Animation and Game Art students spent 24 hours creating a 3D character and bringing it to life in a six second animated 3D scene. Organized by Rigging Basics Lab Specialist Jennifer Conley, the event was created to get 3D Arts students working together and sharpening their skills.

“We all know as we move through the program that our skills get better, but very rarely do we take the time to really see how far we’ve come,” says Jennifer. “3D Blitz essentially takes the 3D Foundations class and turns it into a 24-hour sprint.” Steve Gold was assisting Jennifer and he gave me a run down on the event.

Minutes before the Blitz began, students were given an overall theme of prehistoric. They each then were randomly given a genre that they had to incorporate into their scene, anything from romance to action to mystery. I went in to sketch and see how many students were up to the challenge. The Auditorium was buzzing with activity. Storyboards were complete and many students were modeling characters and one student was already rigging a character to move. Alec Small, who had just taken my 2D Animation, the course, showed me his story boards. He had a caveman lifting a huge Terra dactyl egg. A baby Terra dactyl looks at him quizzically and he puts the egg down, feeling guilty. The egg then hatches. Matthew was modeling a human character basing it on Andrew Loomis, ideal proportions. He said he would add Cro-Magnon features after the ideal character was modeled.

The next 24 hours were a marathon of sketching, modeling, and animating. About half the students made it to the finish line. When the Blitz ended on Sunday afternoon, students had a pizza party and watched the 12 video projects that were submitted on the projection screen in the Entertainment Business Auditorium.

Sculpting a Classical Portrait

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On Saturday July 13th, Exhibiting sculptor Peter Forster presented a six-hour art demo at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens (633 Osceola Ave. Winter Park FL). The five dollar special demonstration was titled: “Sculpting a Classical Portrait“. I arrived right at 10am and Peter was packing white clay onto the armature. He is one of the exhibiting artists in the “Start to Finish” Florida Sculptor’s Guild exhibit at the museum through July 21st..

I had made this the first stop on the Orlando World Wide SketchCrawl. There was a second floor balcony looking down on the sculptor and I decided that this “God’s eye view” would work best for a sketch. Perhaps ten to fifteen people sat around the room watching Peter work. Pete’s daughter pointed out that there were pencils and paper should anyone want to take notes or sketch.

When Peter opened the floor for questions, I shouted out, “Is it possible to finish a bust in six hours?” Peter replied that if the muses were willing it would be possible. If he started thinking about needing to impress someone then the process would get bogged down. He has a friend who is a conductor, and anytime the orchestra goes off tempo, the conductor would raise his hand to his heart. This would bring everything back on tempo.

To start Peter was concerned with the large masses, not details. He stuck a wire through the mass of clay to find the placement of the ears. On a pad nearby he showed us how measurements from that central ear placement helped define the profile of the sculpture. The model was a sculptor himself named Byron Walker. Peter likes when the model’s turn their head. This creates interesting shapes in the neck do to the twisting of muscle and fat. He focused on a “keystone ridge” above and between the eyes. With that defined a likeness was already imminent. One person asked why he didn’t have the hair in place yet. He responded that the hair was only the icing on the cake. The journey is what matters not the final destination. He likened a sculpture to a sketch and said he had to wait for that, “Ah ha!” moment when the model’s true natural gesture shined through. I’ve felt this moment sketching people on location so I knew what he was relating.

Since there were other stops on the SketchCrawl, I had to leave before the sculpture was done.  When I got downtown however, I realized that I had left my artist stool in the sculptor’s studio. I had to go back. I was shocked at the progress when I returned.

Stuck in Love

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A marketing firm asked me to give away tickets to a movie screening. I could give away as many tickets as I wanted, but seating at the theater would be on a first come first served basis. I decided to go to the screening of “Stuck in Love” to see how full the theater was. Terry was going to meet me after work, so I quickly sketched the theater, Regal Winter Park Cinemas 20,(510 N Orlando Ave Winter Park, FL) before she arrived. I saw a line form outside the theater but they filed in before the schedules screening time. Small groups of people were let into the theater at a time. The guy at the front of the line told me it was to avoid chaos and a mad rush to seating.

The writer and director of the film, Josh Boone was there along with actor Logan Lerman to quickly introduce the film and take questions afterwards. The film is about the Borgens family. William Borgens is an acclaimed author who hasn’t
written a word since his ex-wife Erica left him 3 years ago for another
man. In between spying on Erica and casual romps with his married
neighbour Tricia, Bill is dealing with the complexities of raising his
teenage children Samantha and Rusty. Samantha is publishing her first
novel and is determined to avoid love at all costs – after all she’s
seen what it has done to her parents. In between hook ups, she meets
“nice guy” Lou who will stop at nothing to win her over. Rusty, is an
aspiring fantasy writer and Stephen King aficionado, who is on a quest
to gain ‘life experiences’. He falls for the beautiful, but troubled
Kate and gets his first taste of love and a broken heart. A tale of
family, love (lost and found), and how endings can make new beginnings.
There are no rewrites in life, only second chances.

Josh Boone related after the screening that some of the material in the movie was autobiographical. Rusty’s first love is based on his own experiences in high school, of love found and lost. Being fiction he was able to rewrite his family history, having his father wait three years for his wife to return.  Terry felt that no man would wait that long in hopes that love would return. Logan loved working on the film because the entire cast stayed in a hotel during the shooting and they truly became a tight knit family. This is a rare film with plenty of sincere emotion. Josh had written the screenplay many years ago and the true challenge was to find the money to make it. Once he had the backing, things fell into place quickly. He has a bright future ahead of him and he is already onto the next projects, “Pretenders“, and “The Fault in Our Stars“. “Stuck in Love” is in select theaters now. Don’t miss it.

Zimmerman Not Guilty

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Saturday July 13th was the 40th World Wide SketchCrawl. I deviated from the planned itinerary and went up to Sanford Florida to see if there were people waiting outside the courthouse for the verdict in the case against George Zimmerman.  The courthouse was surprisingly quiet.  Dark storm clouds loomed heavy and grey. Just hours later, jurors would announce the verdict that George Zimmerman was not guilty. I didn’t follow the trial on TV but I was there when the first protests happened.  On the morning of the final deliberations, prisoners shouted “Justice for Trayvon” from their cells.

Zimmerman shot and killed the unarmed Trayvon Martin in a Sanford neighborhood. Zimnerman was a citizen neighborhood patrolman. He called a police dispatcher, saying that he saw a suspicious youth with a hoodie walking through his neighborhood. The dispatcher told Zimmerman to stay in his car, that police were on the way. Zimmerman got out of his car anyway, stalked Trayvon and shot him to death. The youth had skittles in his pocket.

The jury was entirely made up of women.  Though found not guilty, Zimmerman certainly isn’t innocent. It is unlikely that he will ever again walk the streets of Sanford on patrol. He is easily identifiable with his round face and small eyes. He is a pariah, and will likely disappear from public sight very much like Casey Anthony, the mom accused of killing her two year old daughter. Though found not guilty, she is still embroiled in law suits. She owes $800,000 and hasn’t worked since her case was settled. She filed for bankruptcy, but in March, a lawyer filed a motion asking for a Florida judge’s permission
to sell “the exclusive worldwide rights in perpetuity to the commercialization of Anthony’s life story.” Casey didn’t want any part of it. She had to pay $25,000 to settle the case and keep her story to herself.

George Zimmerman’s wife, Shellie, will likely be charged with perjury. She lied saying that the family had no money for lawyers fees when there was $135,000 in the bank. Money was being transferred out of George Zimmerman’s account in an effort to hide the money. This isn’t the last day in court for the Zimmermans. TV reporters kept asking people to express their anger, shock and resentment as if this is the only thing that is news worthy.

Spike Lee used Twitter to send out George Zimmerman’s home address during the trial. He got the address wrong and ruined the lives of an elderly couple,  David and Elaine McClain, who had to suffer the abuse of false public scrutiny. They have nothing to do with the Zimmerman case.  There were threats on social media and notes left on their doorstep.  They had to leave their home fearing for their safety. The woman suffered a heart attack after the stress and strain.  This false address is still being re tweeted endlessly. The Internet, rather than bringing people together is helping tear us apart.