K.D. Lang

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On May 27th, K.D. Lang performed at Hard Rock Live in Universal Studios. Terry scored some free tickets to the concert. We were pleased to find that parking is free for Florida residents after 6PM as well. We parked in the Jaws lot and rode the series of escalators and people movers towards City Walk. City Walk is the closest thing Orlando has to Times Square so I might be tempted to return for some night time sketching in the future.

Our seats were way up in nose bleed territory, but the price was right. Terry went to get some sodas at the bar. I saw Parker Sketch in the crowd but I didn’t have a chance to talk to him, I was already sketching. I layed out the sketch while the house lights were on, but then the place went pitch black. The warm up act was Jane Siberry and the Siss Boom Bang. She is from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is most famous for her early 1980s new wave
hits such as ‘Mimi on the Beach’, ‘I Muse Aloud’ and ‘One More Color’.
Internationally, she is best known for her 1993 album ‘When I Was a
Boy’. She talked far more than she sang and honestly we couldn’t wait for her to get off the stage.

Terry has several K.D. Lang CDs so I was very familiar with her music. She  is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter. She is
regarded as one of Canada’s foremost female vocalists, as well as a
champion of legal equality for LGBT people. K.D. is the same age as me. Terry told me that when K.D. came out publicly she was in her twenties and it took some guts since most performers hid their private lives and loves. She was on fire for this performance. I particularly liked her rendition of Hallelujah.  People were standing and swaying to the music by the end of the concert. There was endless applause when she left the stage and even louder applause for the encore. It was a great concert in a great venue.

House of Blues

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I heard that Andy Matchett & the Minx were performing at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney. Traffic on the Disney roads was really backed up. I’ve never seen so many cars on the road, and I worked down there for ten years.

I also heard there would be plenty of robots from Dog Powered Robot. Last year, Dog Powered Robot made a surprise visit with the band at House of Blues. Fisher, the Pomeranian who powers the robot, was unfazed by all the commotion. The stage manager at House of Blues had a fit. There is a “no pet” policy at House of Blues. There wasn’t much she could do since the crowd loved them. You couldn’t exactly have a Dog Powered Robot without the dog.

Even after breaking all the rules, the robots were back, but this time the friendly Blue Pomeranian powered robot wasn’t in the mix. The curtain opened and Andy was bound center stage, being held captive apparently by a robot with a grudge. I didn’t follow events closely, but I believe Lollybot must have saved him. I’m sure her robotic claw could have cut through the ropes. Terry was on her feet shouting, “I love you Lollybot!” She had on her Lollybot t-shirt and was as rabid as any Beatles fan. Andy Matchett & the Minx began playing and confetti canons blasted it’s colors over the crowd. Balloons and beach balls were then surfed over the crowd. People went wild. Balloons were popping everywhere and strobe lights made me dizzy as I worked on the sketch. Then, just about every robot at some point danced on stage. Ninja Noids were up on the balcony level and they wafted large hot dog shaped balloons over the crowd. A large parachute was unrolled over the crowd and Andy jumped down off the stage to join the audience as the dance under the undulating canopy. Oh yea, there was also plenty of hard driving fun rock & roll! An Andy Matchett & the Minx concert is a guaranteed good time.

Stars and Stripes and All That Jazz

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The Central Florida Sounds of Freedom Band and Color Guard held it’s premiere concert, called Stars and Stripes and All That Jazz at the Orlando Shakes Theater on June 10th. The mission of the band, close to 50 members strong, is to inspire community and connect people whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or straight. Their goal is to unite, serve and educate through music, entertainment and arts. The concert was free although they accepted donations. Juan Canasi dreamed of a LGBT Community Band over ten years ago, and it was finally formed just one year ago thanks in part to contacts made with friends on social media. Some band members took their dusty instruments out of the closet to join and others are professional musicians.

Conductor Lee Sellers addressed the audience before the performance. He taught band at several middle schools and said he liked stepping up to conduct this mature group. “A band member in middle school might announce that he was getting braces the day before a performance. Oh, wait one of the Sounds of Freedom band members just got braces…” he said and laughed. The Color Guard wasn’t on stage, they volunteered by handing out programs and acting as ushers.

The band began with selections from Chicago. I was pleased to see Emily Lindahl stroll out performing a trumpet solo, using a mute to flair the jazz filled notes. Emily is the director of public relations for the Orlando Philharmonic and I had no idea she played trumpet. I worked feverishly since I knew it was a fairly short concert. Band members switched seating positions between songs which added to my challenge. The band performed a rendition of Over the Rainbow, dedicated to Bob Imlah and ended with some traditional John Philip Sousa.

Blank Space’s Last Night

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I’ve been to many events at Blank Space. It has been something of a mecca for me downtown. Amanda Chadwick and Mathew Simantov met at Blank Space and they are engaged to be married in Seattle. The place has hosted an endless stream of parties and arts events over the past two years. I’ve been to bad ass dance parties here where the folks in tuxedos across the street who had paid $200 for a political fundraiser wished they were having as much fun. It came as a surprise to find out Blank Space was closing its doors due to unfortunate circumstances having to do with the building owner, and David Charles not being able to afford to relocate at this time. So on June first, there was one more evening of great music, and half price on all the beer that was left (about 1,000 beers).

I arrived straight from work. There were several clusters of people seated at the bar. I ordered Blue Moon and sat down for one more sketch, for old times sake. It was odd and a bit sad that the walls were completely empty. Later that night, artists were going to paint the walls. When I got up to leave, I passed a graffiti artist outside who was taping up the window supports. He planned to paint as many windows as possible. Homeless men played chess on a stoop between Blank Space and the barber shop. For once Orlando felt urban and gritty. The window had been scraped clean of the art in a matter of days.

I passed the deserted space yesterday. Artists had drawn all over the interior walls with sharpies and spots of inspired color.  The once vibrant cultural hub was now silent but the writing was on the wall, as artists search for ways to express themselves in the homoginized downtown.

Printmaking Workshop

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The Mennello Museum of American Art (900 East Princeton Street) is exhibiting IMPRINTS: 20 Years of Flying Horse Editions through August 12th. Here in Orlando for the past 20 years, the University of Central Florida has nurtured Flying Horse Editions, a collaborative research studio committed to creating significant works of art by leading and emerging artists who fuse traditional and innovative printmaking processes. Artists come to Flying Horse Editions to work in the graphic media of intaglio, woodcut, lithography, letterpress and silkscreen.The results are highly collectible, limited-edition, handcrafted fine art prints and books. There are only a dozen or so fine art presses in the country, and Flying Horse Editions is one of the most distinguished on the East Coast.

Artists from Flying Horse Press have been offering workshops at the Mennello museum. This session was about making monotypes, which is the specialty of UCF “Artists in Action” Michelle Garay and Anna Cruz. Michelle showed us Nathan Redwood’s Like Air, as an example, the print used a lino-cut for the tree trunk, collograph for the ground and a mono-print for the sky. We learned
how to manipulate printer’s ink so that it looks like brushstrokes along with other tricks of the trade that make unique, one-of-a-kind prints.We were introduced to Reductive Mono-printing. Nathan’s a print on display in the Museum.

Students were given two sheets of paper. They cut out simple shapes on one sheet. For instance the woman seated in front of me cut out a leaf shape. The negative shape, or the paper outside the leaf shape, was placed on a sheet of Plexiglas and a brayer was used to roll the ink onto the Plexiglas. When the paper was removed, only the leaf shape was inked. Q tips were used to smear and remove some ink to add texture. The positive leaf shape was then placed over the inked leaf shape and a new color ink was rolled down. When the paper was removed the printing plate was ready. A clean sheet of paper was lightly spritzed with water and placed on top of the printing plate. The plate was rolled under pressure. Then came the reveal, as the paper was pealed off. Mono means there was only one print made. One student went so far as to print a rendition of the human brain. There is an undeniable childish delight when the print is finally seen.

Printmaking is not just for kids! The museum has set up its own print studio. Enjoy coffee and pastries in the morning while you create your own art prints, . No previous experience is necessary. Cost is just $12 per person. Each class will have a different focus.

You have one more opportunity to create art and treat yourself to something new!

Get up bright and early July 17, 9-10:30am, with coffee and pastry.

Soft Exposure

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Soft Exposure happens on the 4th Wednesday of every month. Frankie Messina has taken over as host for Soft Exposure at Infusion Tea (1600 Edgewater Dr College Park). Naomi Butterfield used to host this open mic night but she recently moved to Gabon. Frankie has added his own flair to this night of poetry and prose. When I arrived, he was still setting up. He had a stack of vinyl records and he spun his favorites as people arrived. Billy Holiday‘s silky voice greeted me. Frankie runs a local arts support organization called Apartment E. Formed in 1993 it offers local love and support. He came up with phrase “City Beautiful” and he owns the online domain.

Artist Janae Corrado set up a display of her oil paintings and pencil sketches.  Her work has a flavor of the surreal while remaining grounded. Frankie asked her to talk about her work between readings. She was hesitant but finally stepped up to the mic. Her work is personal and she tries to keep titles and themes open as she is working on a painting. She has been painting for five years now but has been an artist since she was a child. She feels the Orlando art scene has plenty of talent, much of it unrecognized. The Florida art market tends to be driven by tourism with the exception of Miami which might be its own country. The largest painting she brought was of a woman with horns in front of a bare tree. The model for this painting was Kassandra Kharis. Kassandra was an amazing local artist who took her own life several days ago. I was shocked and humbled by the news from her friend Tracy Lulu Brown. Kassandra’s work is dark and mysterious. She appeared in an isolated sketch I did in Blank Space. I spoke to Janae briefly about Kassandra and her eyes lit up as she talked about how Kassandra wore antlers to an opening to look just like her painting. Laughter and joy in memories masked the loss.

Joe Rosier started the evening off with a poem he wrote at Fringe about a microphone not in use on the empty outdoor stage. He lamented the lost opportunity and endless potential that went unnoticed. Frankie read an amazing poem about lines. Like the line in the sand, the line we are meant not to cross. I wish I had heard this poem as I worked on the Mennello Museum line mural. There were emotional sparks flying in the poems. Several times my eyes burned and had to be wiped dry on my sleeve. Several tourists were in the room. They flew from Australia to Orlando to attend an Avatar self help course. They read from a group exercise handbook. I felt a bit uncomfortable as the material had a cult tinge to it, but in the end their message was of compassion and understanding which is what any art form should aspire to. A poet apologized for not writing much recently. He then recited The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. I love this poem, which I first read in high school. Now that my hair grows thin and grey, the poem has added impact and meaning as I search and scratch out images every day.  Curtis Meyer ended the evening with an emotional spoken word piece about the inventor of the inner circuitry in microphones. The thrust of his poem rushed forwards and back like a DJ spinning vinyl to a rap beat. The evening had come full circle.

I left feeling inspired and uplifted, yet sad that talent could burn so bright and often go unnoticed in an indifferent world.

Black & White

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The Food Truck Cafe occurs every Wednesday from 6pm to 9pm at Lake Lily Park in Maitland, located at the intersection of State Road 17-92 and Maitland Avenue in Maitland. Typically anywhere from 5 to 8 different Food Truck concepts will participate. All of Food Trucks are unique, all them are independently owned and managed, and the dishes I tried from Big Wheel were delicious. Current participants include: The Korean BBQ Taco Box, The Crooked Spoon , Big Wheel Provisions , Redeye BBQ , The Treehouse Truck, and The Yum Yum Cupcake Truck.

The parking lot at Lake Lilly park was packed but I lucked into a close spot as someone pulled out. I was there to see Black and White with Beth Black on violin and Jim Bass on keys and guitar. The food trucks were lined up along the waterfront and there were tables set up on the cement boardwalk so people could sit and enjoy their meals. Between the clusters of tables was the performers tent. I know Beth because she volunteers for the Florida Film Festival. They performed a variety of covers. Beth had a sweet singing voice. The parks department had a menacing red lock box set up to accept tips for the performers. Children took delight in the live music sometimes swaying and dancing. As the sun set, the light sparkled on the lily pad encrusted lake. Lines for the food were short and the event was very family friendly.

There Will Be Words

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On the second Tuesday of every month authors gather at 7PM at Urban ReThink, (625 East Central Boulevard), for a literary prose throw down called There Will Be Words. The event is hosted by J. Bradley and judged by three unsuspecting audience members picked at random. Most of the people who pack the audience for There will be Words are authors who are themselves competing. It is an event that I am now addicted to, since listening to stories told live seems far more interesting to me than watching reruns on TV or watching movies where computer effects are the star attraction.

On this evening, I sketched James Fleming,  who read a highly entertaining and funny story called, God Damn Bears. It was an excerpt from a memoir called Too Much Sunshine, Memories of a Boyhood in the Age of Regan. You should listen, it really is hilarious. Warning however, it wasn’t very politically correct. It is a strange story in which fear becomes legend in a small rural town. Bears, get a bad wrap.

Authors spared head to head in heated literary heats until at the end of the evening, a victor was announced. I didn’t really follow the scoring, anyone who listens in, wins. As the light outside faded the stories gained heft and weight. If I remember right, J. Bradley won that night. I don’t see the point in judging. It is simply enough to expose the creative culture that continually bubbles to the surface here in Orlando.

Tasty Tuesday Shut Down by Police

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On June 19th, Mark Baratelli, of The Daily City, gave me a tip that a food truck event in the Milk District was being shut down by police. He felt that all the proprietors in the neighborhood were behind the event since it brought in a crowd. Apparently a business in the neighborhood did complain and there were reports that Code Enforcement was there. In Miami, food truck corals draw huge crowds to the trendy gallery district. I immediately drove over to see what was going on. As I approached the Milk District, I noticed a food truck driving away. The event was called Tasty Tuesdays and involved food trucks in a parking lot at the corner of Robinson and Graham. There was a small crowd of 20 to 30 people milling about. Some people were finishing off plates of food. Two police cars were parked in the middle of the road blocking traffic. Officers stood in the road with their arms crossed waiting for the food trucks to pack up and leave. Melissa’s Chicken and Waffles food truck closed up and pulled out of the parking lot as I sketched. A camera man from Fox 35 News started shooting video.

Saigon Sizzle on the left side of my sketch packed away a table and supplies and then backed out of the lot. I asked  the guy who was helping guide the driver why they had to leave. “The police say we are blocking traffic.” he said. “We assumed the organizer had all the right permits, but I guess not.” Slowly the crowd disappeared as the sun set behind the T.G. Lee’s Milk towers. A mosquito kept tickling my left elbow. I rushed to finish the sketch before I lost all my light. The Flattery, a black food truck was parked on the sidewalk and was the last to leave.

The Daily City contacted Commisioner Patti Sheehan and this is what she had to say. “City
staff is working with Tommy to try and get the issues resolved.  There
was a complaint from a nearby business.  I was aware of parking
concerns, and I had spoken to OPD about it, but I was unaware of the
code provision that does not allow sales from the city right-of-way. 
The trucks were warned, but a few decided to pay the fine and continue
selling. I would
rather work this out so that all of the codes are understood and
followed, and the event can continue. I do not think this is a bad omen
for food trucks in general, just a hiccup with a group trying to
promote an event that needs to be a little more familiar with our
rules.” Read the rest here…

Tasty Tuesdays in The Milk District had this to say on Facebook, “One
of the businesses on the street complained one too many times. Worst
case scenario, next week the trucks will be in the Spacebar/Sandwich
Bar, Etoile Boutique/Milk Bar, and Doggy Day Care parking lots. Best
case scenario, we’re back on the street – we will keep you all updated.
Small businesses for the win!”

Yum! Yum!  I drove home and had a hot dog for dinner. I was starving.

Hindu Cowboys

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On the second Friday of every month there is Culture and Cocktails at the Maitland Art Center. In May, the band was the Hindu Cowboys. I had seen this band once before at a Friends of the Philharmonic, Jeans and Jewels fundraiser. This was my first opportunity to sketch them. Terry planned to join me, but she was late, so I started sketching even as band members set up speakers and equipment. They played an assortment of originals and covers. My wife, Terry Thorspecken, arrived and spread open a blanket on the grass beside me. I was working in one of the larger Stillman & Birn sketchbooks, so it took a bit more time to splash down color washes. I managed to finish by the time the band finished their first set.

Terry wasn’t in the mood to see any art, so I walked into the Maitland Art Center on my own. On display was student work all of which was of cropped in forced perspectives of home exteriors. The work was painterly and bold. Much of it was quite impressive so the teacher must have had a strong and definite premise. I then went across the street to the Mayan courtyard where there was a poetry reading. The lit page illuminated the poets face from below. Folding chairs were arranged in the courtyard and an audience of perhaps 20 people listened intently. The poet read about the irony of being called a “domestic partner”.

The Hindu Cowboys began to play again. Terry was gone. I listened to several songs and then decided to leave.