The Maitland Art Center hosted an event called Aloha Holidays. The street in front of the arts center was blocked off making way for an assortment of crafts tents and food vendors. I wandered the tents looking at all the tropical delights. My attention was immediately drawn to the music act and a fellow who had to be the real Santa Claus. His beard was real and his Hawaiian print shirt and shorts fit in nicely with the tropical theme. Periodically children of young families would pose with him.
Aloha Productions was the name of the music group and they played non stop. At one point two chairs were placed in front of the musicians and two Polynesians demonstrated how to weave a basket from palm fronds. There was a lively Hula dance demonstration as well. A Polynesian rendition of Over the Rainbow was one of the more memorable numbers. The song is very relaxing and for a moment the rush of the holidays no longer mattered. The producer of the group saw me working and he gave me his cards saying I should sketch at weddings. He said that with the economy going south, that more couples are getting married. I would have thought the opposite would be true but he should know.
The Nutcracker at Lake Eola
The Russian Ballet of Orlando presented a free performance of The Nutcracker at The Lake Eola Band-shell.It was a freezing cold night, well down in the 40’s anyway, so I dressed in 3 layers a sweatshirt, fleece jacket and a windbreaker. Even with all that I was rather cold. instead of sitting in the theater benches I picked a nice tree to lean up against. This gave me a good overall view of the band-shell and audience. This sketch was done on the digital tablet. The tablet is good for getting bright colors and it has the added advantage of getting nice and hot when the processor is being put through a workout. It worked as a nice hand warmer. I am making a commitment to use the tablet more often when sketching at night and indoors.
During a fifteen minute intermission a group of children ran screaming after a swan causing it to swim as fast as possible away from them. The father rather lamely asked them to leave the poor bird alone but they continued the pursuit. At one point during the Swan Lake number the swans started to honk loudly lifting their tall necks. Then they went right back to searching for food under the water.
I can’t offer much of a review of the Ballet. There was always someone standing between me and the stage but I did catch quick glimpses. I can tell you that the dancers who were standing off stage were freezing. I could see them huddled together and jumping up and down to try and stay warm. The cold weather made this feel like a true Christmas performance.
ChanuIKEA
För åttonde natten Hanukkah, Brian Feldman värd en dynamisk händelse med sin mor i IKEA Orlando på 4092 Eastgate Drive. Jag kom några minuter för tidigt och hittade Chris Blanc, Jeremy Seghers och Mark Baratelli väntar inom restaurangområdet i butiken. De diskuterade om de skulle få lite mat innan Brian kom. Jag bestämde jag kunde inte skissa och äta på samma gång så jag väntade. Brian anlände sent. Den grupp människor som sakta samlades gick till ett bord på en lokal vid toppen av rulltrappan där vi kunde se posten vägen till affären. Seth Kubersky i Orlando Weekly sa att förra årets tillställning var mycket lika. För diner Seth beställde lox vilket är en mycket Judisk skålen med svenska köttbullar som säkerligen inte är. När Brian kom han sökte efter ett eluttag för att koppla in sin elektrisk Menorah. Den första kontakten fungerade inte och jag hittade honom ett annat utlopp. Fru Feldman delade ut dreidels för alla och förklarade spelen betydelse. Ett högt tillkännagivande om butiken intercom meddelade att restaurangen skulle stängas i 15 minuter. Strax därefter Brian reste sig och började göra tillkännagivanden av hans egna som översatt från hebreiska till svenska. Låntagare vid andra bord började sneglande över tänkande Brian skulle kunna tala i tungor. Brian leder sedan monterar folk på en rundtur i IKEA talar i hans översatta svenska manus. För att avsluta skissen jag var tvungen att stanna kvar. Porttelefonen meddelade att butiken skulle läggas ned i 15 minuter, så jag började jobba snabbare. När porttelefonen meddelade att butiken var stängd jag fortfarande dröjde tillsätta några sista tvättar. När jag gick ner till första våningen, fann jag gruppen i slutet. Jag frågade vad jag hade missat, och ingen kunde egentligen kan erbjuda en tydlig förklaring. Brian hade separerat från gruppen vid ett tillfälle och de förlorat kontakten med honom. Jag börjar tro att hela poängen med ChanuIKEA var för alla att uppleva semester rusa på turné i ögonblicken innan butiken stängd.
Hialeah Racetrack Re-Opens
The Hialeah Racetrack first opened in 1921. In 1979 the track was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1988 it was designated a National Historic landmark. In 2001 the track was closed and it has sat idle for 7 years. On Saturday November 28th the Racetrack re-opened and I went along with Terry, Elaine, and Derrik to experience the excitement. There was a huge line of cars perhaps a mile long waiting to get into the parking lot. Derrik maneuvered his vehicle onto a post office lawn and we walked a block to enter the track. while walking down a long drive we could see a large flock of Flamingos flying in a tight circle around a small lake in the center of the track. Loud Cuban music was playing and people were dancing. The track was located in a Cuban neighborhood and these folks know how to party! Entire multi-generational families were swaying to the rhythmic beat.
The event was very crowded. We watched the horses and jockeys as they made their way to the track. I thought horse number 4 with a bright yellow jersey was looking fit and I picked him as the winner. Derrick made his way to place a bet, and Terry and I went to the stands to watch the race. When the horses entered the starting gates everyone got to their feet. when the race started there was an instant roar from the crowd. I was shocked at how short the race was. These were Quarter horses and they only sprint the straightaway in front of the stands. My horse didn’t win. He wasn’t even close.
After realizing I shouldn’t bet on the races, I went outside and did this sketch. Between races people would come out to enjoy the sun and check their racing forms. The 8th race was the last race of the day and we decided to get out early. People were still streaming into the track as we were leaving. They were showing up for a live concert. I have never experienced anything like this boisterous event in quiet Orlando.
The Miami Herald Press
The day after Thanksgiving, Elaine, our hostess had to go in to work at the Miami Herald. She had some last minute errands to run for an event she was planning called “The Herald Hunt”. At 6AM every female in the house made a bee line to the mall to shop on Black Friday. Elaine came back from the shopping madness and as agreed she took me to the Herald to sketch the printing press. She was a bit nervous about getting me in since security was beefed up in the building.
Shown in the sketch is the silent room where workers periodically check to see if the printing press needed adjusting. They would leave the room and run up the steps to make adjustments to the press. The foreman suggested I wear earplugs and I took his suggestion. The noise is deafening. A long line of printed items flowed up a conveyor belt through a hole in the ceiling. Elaine explained that papers are bound up on this upper floor. Sketching opportunities were endless. I walked past the machinist shop and sparks were flying as the machinists worked.
After a while the foreman stopped by and looked over my shoulder. Rather than try to shout over the noise, he gave me a thumbs up.
Lotto Pool – Brian Feldman
I traveled to Miami Beach to see Brian Feldman’s first performance there. Brian sat in the lobby of the Carlton Hotel in South Beach 1433 Collins Avenue. There he sat at a small table decorated with Lotto playslips. The goal of this performance was to pool $1 from as many people as possible and then purchase the number of tickets corresponding to the number of people who entered the pool. The hotel owner had reservations about allowing Brian to stage his performance here. He was concerned that it might seem like Brian was selling tickets right in the lobby. Brian had to keep a low profile to keep from being booted out.
This same evening, there was a Pool Art Fair being held in the hotel in conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach. Art Basel Miami Beachis a huge art fair with gallery owners from around the world displaying their wares. Much of the best art work in the world is flown into Miami for this event and it it almost impossible to see it all. Terry and I both gave Brian a dollar and had to sign a “Lotto Pool” agreement. If one of the lotto tickets purchased won then Brian would purchase a piece of art from the Pool Fair or a parallel fair of Art Basel Miami Beach and he would divide the work by cutting (if a canvas or paper) or breaking (if sculpture or mixed media) the purchased art into the number of pieces corresponding to the number of individuals in the lotto pool.
Part of me wanted to win and another part didn’t want to win. I didn’t want to be a part of destroying a great work of art and yet it might be fun to see some bad art cut up. A friend told me a parable about two women who went before a king both claiming to be a baby’s mother. When the king could not get to the bottom of the issue with just questions, he decided to cut the child in half and give each woman half. One woman pleaded and said she would relinquish her claim if he spared the child’s life. The king then knew she must be the true mother. With that in mind, I let out a sigh of relief when Brian sent me an e-mail informing me that none of the lotto tickets purchased had won. At least I got a decent sketch.
The Herald Hunt
An estimated 5000 people showed up for the Miami Herald Hunt. The hunt offers teams of players a chance to win a 7 day Costa Caribbean cruise if they can find all the clues located around downtown Miami. The insanity began with a print out in the Miami Herald. There opening multiple choice questions were posted which would help locate coordinates on the supplied map to help pinpoint where clues were located. Here is one of those questions…
In August Sen Mel Martinez resigned as one of Florida’s U.S. Senators. Whom did Gov. Charlie Crist appoint to replace him.
D. Gloria Estifan.
G. A live six foot nurse shark.
H. Some Lackey.
Well it wasn’t Gloria, and not a nurse shark, so it had to be some lackey. Even I got this one right. The answer of H was then combined with a number given by Pulitzer prize winning author Dave Barry from the main stage to give a coordinate on the hunt map. This clue lead us to Trinity Cathedral a block away. Most of the crowd scattered. Terry and I were working with Hailey and she was the one who quickly got the map coordinates in place. As soon as the hunt began however some Carolers stepped out on the stage and started singing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”. Well hark means listen and this event was put on by the Herald so we stayed and listened. It soon became obvious that the two singers dressed as angels were not singing all the verses. They only sang verses 3, 5 and 11. In the paper 3511 was one of the clues. I thought, hey this is easy! We were off and running.
When we got to the Trinity Cathedral however we got bogged down. There volunteers gave each team a rubber bracelet and said “put it on your wrist”. P 3 was stamped on to the bracelet. While everyone sat around looking at page 3 in the paper, trying to solve a letter jumble, I decided to just count the number of letters in “Put it on your wrist.” That made the answer 16. I was excited and sure I was right but the rest of the team didn’t agree. After half an hour of agonizing we decided to move on having not solved the puzzle. We even went so far as to count the number of bracelets on a mosaic located at the front of the cathedral but that was a false lead. After the event was over I found out 16 was the correct answer but for an entirely different reason. The jumble had “Put it on your wrist” within the jumbled letters and if you put the bracelet on the answer 16 letters were contained in the space. Ugh!!!
At this point I felt our team had no chance of winning and I started hunting for a sketch instead. At the Arsht Center Plaza, Juliet began calling out to Romeo from a balcony high above the crowd. She was so high up that Romeo has trouble hearing her and he yelled out that Juliet should call him. This clue lead astute hunters to a fake ad in the paper for an Italian restaurant called “The House of Montague“. When the phone number in the add was called a message said “Where fore art thou has four syllables No, yes, no, yes.” In other words pay attention to the second and fourth syllables. fore thou or 4000.
Another clue was given in the theater where a young white man named Jack was lying on the stage with a sword stuck in his chest. His friends tried to figure out who murdered Jack before the police arrived. As the actors were reenacting the events of the evening the house lights went out and the audience was told to stay seated while they fixed the problem. When the lights came back on the actors became concerned that something had changed. The murdered Jack had been replaced by a black actor. The answer to this puzzle was Black Jack or 21.
Other clues scattered about downtown consisted of an IV bottle and stand located outside the theater and a radio broadcast of a field goal. The answers would be 4 and 3. These were to help solve a Sudoku puzzle found down by the docks. Since my main goal now was no longer to win but to sketch, I returned to the main stage to sketch the carolers who had been performing every 15 minutes during the the event. As I was sketching, Dave Barry walked onto the stage and offered the final clue of the Hunt. He said, “I’d like to give you the final clue but it’s just too gross.” A gross is a dozen dozen or 144, two gross would be 288 this lead to a 6th clue in the paper that said “If words were inches”. The insanely clever souls that had solved the 5 clues from around the city then counted the words in the 5 clues and got the answer of 48 words. 48 inches is 4 feet. On the Herald Hunt map, 4 feet were drawn near the theater and several teams sprinted in that direction. The location offered 4 bricks which were inscribed with the names of 4 made up donors all named Foot. The winners had to figure out the donors ages from dates inscribed on the bricks and from that they could assemble a phone number which when called announced them as the winners. Of course I never got that far, I was too busy sketching. Perhaps next year the Orlando team will be more of a contender.
It is a shame Orlando does not have such an exciting, fun, quirky way to get people excited about the arts and discovering the treasures of downtown. When the event was over I met Dave Barry and had him sign my sketch.
Striking the Trees.
When I went to the opening night of the Singing Christmas Trees, Aradhana, the director, told me that the lighting would not be at its best since the performance was being done for the TV cameras. I was told that if I wanted to see the show with Jeff’s amazing lighting, I should come back one more time. I finally made it back on closing night. I greeted Jeff when I arrived. I was informed that the house was sold out. Seating was assigned so I decided to sit up in the balcony. He had a framed sketch I had done of him leaning up against his lighting console. The director had given him the sketch that night as a present.
People kept filing in even as the show was getting started. I texted the director to let her know I was seeing the show one last time. The pastor joked with the audience saying that on the final night the cast would most certainly get it right. When the music grew louder and the Kabuki curtain dropped I could hear the couple next to me whisper to each other, WOW! Huge snowflake animations on the walls of the worship center bought a similar reaction just as if they were watching fireworks.
Though I loved the show, my reactions were more subdued than the first time. I recognized this quiet, somber, feeling. I suspect I always feel this way on a shows closing night. It is like Christmas came and went to early for me. Having sketched the cast for so long, I identify with their sometimes unsure hearts bolstered by faith. I didn’t want it all to end. I also felt that I might have missed many sketching opportunities. This diamond had so many facets. My humble observations seem to have only scratched the surface of this huge production.
When the show was over a small army of men and women began to crawl all over the Trees like ants, stripping them of their banners and ornaments. The orchestra pit disappeared just as quickly. A few children ran around the huge Worship Center weaving in amongst the pews shouting and laughing. Large wooden storage boxes were rolled down the isles and the trees were quickly disassembled before my eyes. The huge space was filled with the sounds of people yelling orders and the rush of activity. When I finished this sketch I found Jeff again and we talked for a while. The budget for this show had been cut drastically. The director had wanted artificial snow and because of the cuts she didn’t get it. It is possible that the Trees might not go up again next year. The arts are hurting everywhere.
When I got into my truck to leave, I saw a slip of paper shoved into my windshield wiper. Annoyed I stepped out of my truck to get it. It wasn’t an ad but a note that said “The Singing Menorah was here!” I laughed out loud and suddenly felt happy knowing the arts will always shine bright.
The Singing Menorah
Brian Feldman had been ribbing me for some time about all the Singing Christmas Trees sketches I have been posting here on Analog Artist Digital World. At an 8 AM Meeting of MOOM (Meeting of Orlando Minds) on Friday, Brian suggested he might stage a performance of the Singing Menorah at the Track Shack which is at 1104 North Mills Avenue right in the area where I planned to host an Artists and Writers Crawl. He pointed out that Track Shack had one of the few storefront Hanukkah displays in Orlando. The Crawl was only a day away but Brian managed to throw together a stellar performance. He had help from Omar Delarosa who co-wrote many of the lyrics and performed on guitar. Knowing the times of the stops along the Crawl route we agreed that he could start his performance around 8PM when the Crawlers were moving from the first stop, The Peacock Room to the Second stop, Wills Pub.
The Crawl developed a glitch from the start, when Tisse Mallon and I arrived at The Peacock room to find that it would not open for another two hours. I wrote a note and stuck it on the door so other Crawlers would know to go to the second stop, Will’s pub. Because I wandered around and introduced myself to all the people who arrived at Will’s, my sketch was not a very focused. When it was time to wander up to the next stop, I was still splashing watercolors on the sketch. Other crawlers headed out but I kept working. When I arrived at Track Shack where Brian was to perform, there were a crowd of Crawlers sitting in lawn chairs on the sidewalk looking into the storefront window. Omar was playing guitar. At the appointed time Brian walked out having to squeeze in the space between the plate glass and the display wall.
The performance was hilarious and fun. New Hanukkah lyrics had been written for a number of pop tunes. The Menorah that Brian was sporting consisted of cardboard tubes wrapped in tin foil. There were Hanukkah cards leaning up against the storefront window and for some reason a small Mickey Mouse sat watching the audience. Emma Hughes handed out dreidels to everyone in the audience when Brian sang a dreidel song. For the final number, Brian called in his back up dancer named Willoughby Mariano. It seemed most appropriate that she had a cast on her left leg from her foot up to the knee, but she still performed and gave a new meaning to the saying, “Break a leg”. Later, Emma handed out sparklers and when the performance was over everyone lit them up and the lights and sparks danced. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a sparkler since I was still scratching away in my sketch book.
Several times, cars stopped dead on Mills Avenue to see what the excitement was about and several cars honked. However, my attention was sharply focused on the show. This is without a doubt the greatest Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. Well, yes, it is the only Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. For the remainder of the Crawl I heard people commenting on how surprised they were that Brian had such a good singing voice. Brian truly gave the Singing Christmas trees a run for their money.
The Trees – Main Stage
This sketch was done on the day the core group of actors and dancers first took to the main stage. The trees structures had not yet been erected. The choreographer is pointing out where people should be to start the dance number so the whole stage area is used. When the performance began, the choreographer was yelling “Shatzi, Shatzi, step out, come in, out, together out!” With all the clutter there was much less room than expected and the dance number ran into some difficulties. Rather than try to iron out the hot spots the director decided to move the rehearsal to the mirrored dance space. There were no complaints and the second half or the rehearsal saw major improvements. Setbacks left room for unexpected and inspired steps forward. Throughout the night things fell into place even when they were not asked for. For instance a microphone was needed and a tech person just happened to wander into the rehearsal space with a microphone. Miracle or coincidence? That depends on your outlook.
Experience the Trees for yourself!
The final showtime for the Singing Christmas Trees is:
December 13, 5:00 PM
Tickets range from $8 to a $42 Dinner package.