Roller Derby

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I went to Orange County Barnett Park (4801 W Colonial Dr, Orlando, Florida 32808) to sketch an amazing Double Header. Game 1 was between the Orlando Ozone Slayers and the Molly
Rogers Roller girls. Game 2 was between the Orlando Sun Blockers and Rockin City.

There was  a 50/50 raffle, along with shirts, tanks and koozies at the merch table.

There was a pie eating contest followed by a paper airplane contest during halftime.There were bleachers for the crowd but I decided to sit with my back to the auditorium wall for a view down the length of the roller derby oval. The oval was put in place using white tape to outline the track. Volunteers had to periodically fix the tape with fresh tape since the athletes would often scuff and fall onto the lines.

Roller Derby is a fast paces exciting sport to watch. Points are gained then one woman with a star on her helmet manages to lap the bulk of the pack who jockey for position. The action would build to the final moments of each match. Derby  athletes would knock each other over as they bumped an gyrated for position.

The Molly Rogers from Melbourne Florida won the first match 138 to the Orlando Ozone Slayers 135. It was a crazy exciting finish to the match. It was an exciting afternoon of sketching. I need to get to these matches more often.

Las Vegas Rememberance Wall and Healing Garden

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October 2, 2017 the day after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Brad Jerbic a city attorney, one of his friends and an employee of the city, Cameron Robinson was attending the concert where the shooting happened. His friend did not show up to work. At 7:15 that morning they got the call that confirmed that Cameron was one of the 58 who were killed that night. One of the attorneys advised that they should go and take a walk to stop and reflect. But where? At that moment he got a call from Stonerose Landscapes principal, Jay Pleggenkuhl, who advised that the city find a piece of land not to sell or donate but just loan so that a memorial garden would be created immediately. By 10 am they had agreed on a piece of property which is away from the strip at 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd. By 4 pm Jay and Daniel Perez had drawn up a plan for the garden on a napkin. The city decided to step aside and let Jay and his volunteers create the garden.

By Tuesday morning all 58 trees were donated by Boon Valley Nursery and all the shrubs were donated by Star Nursery. Along with the 58 trees there is one more tree called the tree of life. When searching for the spot to plant the tree of life, the soil was kicked and and a medallion just happened to be buried ch was medallion of the tree of life buried in that spot for who knows how many years. Siegfried and Roy donated the Tree of Life tot he garden. In just 4 days the volunteers managed to open the garden. The original Wall of Remembrance which I sketched was made from pallets covered in photos and memorial items. One year later it was removed and stored in the Clark County Museum to be replaced with a more permanent wall of remembrance. The names of the 58 souls lost that night are on the wall.

The community came together in an amazing way to make the garden a reality. The number of volunteers swelled over the days. One man came with coffee for the volunteers and a pizza shop next door donated pizzas. The garden became a path back to life and creation.

Eiffel Tower on the Strip

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The Eiffel Tower on the Las Vegas strip is part of the Caesars Casino in Paris Las Vegas (3655 Las Vegas Boulevard South

Las Vegas , NV 89109). At the top of the tower is a viewing deck located 46 stories up in the half scale replica of the world-famous Paris, France landmark.

As an artist, all the magnificent architectural detail was fun to draw. As I worked on this sketch, a guy was going though his bag in front of me. He seemed really upset that he had picked up the wrong sun glasses. The impression I got was that he lifted the glasses, threw then in his bag and walked out of the store. He had stolen the wrong brand. I should have done a quick sketch of his face  in case the police were interested but I was in the midst of all the detail on this sketch and didn’t want to side track.

This was done several blocks closer to the Mandalay Bay Hotel where the mass shooting happened. My sketching experience was getting me used to huge throngs of people pressed together on the side walks that were separated from traffic with cement stanchions. On this day I made it as far as the New York, NY facades one block from Mandalay Bay where shots were fired on a crowd on October 1, 2017 killing 58 and wounding 413 others. About one month after the shooting, all of the preservable memorial items were gathered, boxed and taken to the Clark County Museum, (1830 S. Boulder Highway, Las Vegas Nevada) to become part of the museum’s permanent collection. The county has cataloged more than 12,000 items that were used to create
makeshift memorials following the Oct. 1 shooting. On October 1, 2018 one year after the shooting the strip went dark at 10:01PM in remembrance of the 58 victims and hundreds injured in the senseless shooting.

The moments during and just after the shooting rampage were recorded on multiple cell phones. For some the effects of that night will last a lifetime. Memorial sites sprang up but most concert goers were from out of town. And the hotels on the strip wanted to get back to business right away. On September of 2019, In the spirit of helping the community heal, MGM Resorts announced that the 15-acre plot where 22,000 people gathered for a country music
festival that ended in the largest mass shooting in U.S. history is
being converted to a community center and parking lot. In coming weeks and months, Las Vegas visitors will notice construction
activity near the shooting site, which has remained unused since the
tragedy. The company said it will also support any effort to install a permanent 1 October Memorial.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for November 16 and 17, 2019

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Saturday November 16, 2019

9am to 1pm.  $10 to enter your chili $5 to eat. Coffee With Pat and Matt Chili Cook-off. The Nook on Robinson (2432 E. Robinson St., Orlando). Fundraising chili cook-off. Our friend Patrick Greene is heading off on another adventure. This time to do Vienna’s prestigious Monochrome Q21 residency! The chili cook off event is a fundraiser for his art venture and a farewell-for-now party. First prize is a $25 bar tab, 2nd and 3rd prize winners get a Pat Greene for Mayor t-shirt.

10am to Noonish. Children under 3 are
free. Admission is included with your $10 ticket. To enjoy free admission present your Annual Pass Member card at
the gate.  Owl Be Home for Christmas. 

Audubon Center for Birds of Prey


(1101 Audubon Way, Maitland Fl). Holiday kick-off event with holiday crafts, meet-and-greets with bird ambassadors, tasty treats and Santa.


(407) 644-019.

5pm to 7pmish. Free. Star Wars Masquerade. 

Gods and Monsters


(5421 International Drive, Orlando Fl). celebrating the Disney release of The Mandalorian, with a Star Wars Masquerade in VAULT 5421. The Empire Strikes Back at 5pm, followed by Return of the Jedi and other Star Wars films and shows on our big screens throughout the night, with spacey tunes playing, themed cocktails, and Cosplay Cage-Dancing by Jacqueline Obsidian from 8pm-12am! If you go in Star Wars cosplay or SW themed masquerade attire to receive 1 FREE SHOT or soda at the bar and 15% off store wide inside Gods and Monsters! (Just mention your attire, at the bar, for your FREE shot or soda and at the register for store discount.)

Sunday November 17, 2019 

Noon to 2pmish Free for kids 12 and under. Regular Ticket Pricing $12.00.  Peanut Butter Matinee: My Neighbor Totoro.

Enzian Theater


(1300 S. Orlando Ave., Maitland Fl). One of my favorite of Miyazaki’s films. Backgrounds are gorgeous. Two girls move to the countryside and befriend playful spirits and a cuddly giant in this animated film from Hayao Miyazaki.


407-629-0054.

 2pmto 4pmish $62 to $37Macbeth.  Orlando Shakes


812 E. Rollins St., Orlando. Shakespeare’s cursed play about a Scottish thane who, under the urging of his wife, murders his way up the ladder of success.


407-447-1700. 

3pm to 5pmish $42 Boesman and Lena. Mad Cow Theatre 

(54 W. Church St., Orlando Fl.) Tale of the struggle of two refugees who encounter a stranger while wandering the South African wastelands.


407-297-8788.

The Strip

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What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Everything seems normal until it is not. While Pam Schwartz was at a museum archivists conference in Las Vegas, Nevada I explored the Strip with my sketchbook. A block from the hotel where the conference was held was a MacDonalds and I ate there each morning as I walked my way over to the strip. I got plenty of exercise on this trip hiking many miles each day. Across the street from Casino Royale and Harrah’s Casino I found a recessed nook by a hotel wall where I was out of the way of the hoards of tourists wandering up and down the strip.

There was plenty to take in among the riot of color and false opulence. A huge McDonalds Arch dominated the scene between the casinos so it seemed fitting since this was my breakfast choice each morning. Other fast food choices included Outback and Panda Express. Barricades were set up all along the strip so that cars could not drive into the crowds on the sidewalks. Pedestrians were carefully sequestered from possible danger but that made no difference on October 1, 2017 when a shooter high up in Mandela Bay Hotel room fired more than 1,100 rifle rounds into a crowd enjoying a Country Harvest Music Festival. 58 people were shot to death and this became the largest mass shooting in America surpassing the 49 shot to death in Orlando just 16 months earlier. One survivor of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Telemachus Orfanos, a navy Veteran, was later shot to death at the Borderline Bar in California where college students were line dancing.12 people  including a police officer were killed at the Borderline.

My goal sketching each day was to do a series of sketches as I walked my way down to the site of the Las Vegas Mass shooting. I never actually entered a casino but Pam and I did take in one amazing Circue show. More of our time was spent seeing that ways that Las Vegas has responded after the mass shooting. The strip was crowded and back in business immediately following the shooting but locals still struggle with their new reality. Like Orlando Las Vegas has a tourist driven economy. It seems that these tourist getaways are very attractive for the insane looking to make a name for themselves by pulling a trigger.

Conservation after the Las Vegas Mass Shooting

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On the night of October 1, 2017, a shooter opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. He killed 58 people and wounded 413, with the ensuing panic bringing the injury total to 869. The incident is the deadliest mass shooting committed by an individual in the history of the United States. This horrible incident came just 16 months after the mass shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people.

Cynthia Sanford the curator at the Clark County Museum took on the responsibility of having to archive the memorial items left for those lost. Volunteers sifted through items collected, took photos and carefully documented and archived every item that entered the collection. Pam Schwartz of the Orange County Regional History Center flew to Las Vegas to offer any advice she might have after collecting and archiving in Orlando.

The two collection sites were vastly different. In Orlando humidity, heat and daily rains soaked and degraded items left at memorial sites in Orlando. Las Vegas literally has no rain. The concert site however was next to the Las Vegas airport and Cynthia said that anything left on the site was literally blown over by planes as they landed or took off.

The Clark County Museum (1830 S. Boulder Highway, Henderson, NV) includes the Anna Roberts Parks Exhibit Hall and
Heritage Street which contains eight historic buildings from the county.  In a building that was once a railroad station behind the museum, volunteers were hard at work even 6 months following the shooting. The woman taking photos of each item choked up as she described how proud she was to be taking part in the process.

The October 1st collection at the Clark
County museum is made up of tens of thousands of artifacts that help to
tell the story of how the community reacted to the mass shooting at the
Route 91 Harvest Festival. The artifacts will be cataloged to record
information such as physical descriptions, dimensions, and conditions.
Each artifact will also be photographed or scanned for identification
purposes. As museum staff and volunteers process these artifacts, you
will be able to follow our progress by viewing identification
photographs.

Museum curators across the country have formed an informal support group. Knowledge gained after one mass shooting is passed on the curators in the next city overwhelmed by tragedy and the super human effort needed should that community decide to collect memorial items. It is a small community that no one asks to be a part of. 

On September 28, 2018 The Clark County Museum opened  “How We Mourned: Selected Artifacts from the 1 October Memorials“. Items put on display included flags, stuffed animals, rosaries,
artificial flowers, signs, letters, banners, candles, art works and a
portion of a Hawaiian lei that was used as a symbol to promote world
peace. The Orange County Regional History Center in Orlando has also mounted an exhibit each year to remember those who were lost.

Chris Cortez at Blue Bamboo

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Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts (1905 Kentucky Ave. Winter Park FL) consistently brings cutting edge music to Central Florida. Chris Cortez one of the founders often offers solo shows about once a month featuring selections from his many CDs and all time favorites from the Great American Songbook to the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Chuck Berry and more. I love the intimate setting and it is one of my favorite spots to sketch musical acts. Something about the setting gets my creative juices going.

Blue Bamboo is part venue, part recording studio, part art gallery. This unique space offers live performances most evenings, state of the art recording studio, and gallery space. More concert hall than night club, they’re open to all ages and present all kinds of music, theater, dance, and spoken word events. They’re also available for private parties. You can browse the online schedule for tickets or call 407-636-9951 for more information.

They have limited seating so patrons are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance or make reservations. Tickets are also available at the door, based on availability. Most shows begin at 8:00 p.m. and the lobby doors open at 7:00 p.m.. A small bar offers wine, beer and soft drinks.

Thursday Night Hang: Dave Sheffield Trio

Blue Bamboo Center for the Arts, 1905 Kentucky Ave, Winter Park

Free admission!

The trio has been performing together for almost 30 years, and the
group is regarded as one of the finest jazz trios in the central Florida
area. The group features Dave on piano, Jeff Green on bass, and Don
Sanderson on drums. This is an authentic jazz trio with repertoire
consisting of standards from the American song book. The group can
easily crossover from easy listening dinner music, to hard bebop.

This event is sponsored by the City of Winter Park.

Up the Ladder Down the Slide

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PlayFest at the Orlando Shakes (812 E Rollins St, Orlando, FL 32803) is a two-weekend festival, where patrons get to experience seven readings of new plays in development and participate in the creative process with post-reading playwright talk backs and surveys. Each reading is $10. I stopped in for a rehearsal of Up the Ladder Down the Slide by David Valdes. The play shares the story of three longtime best friends and their aging parents.

Three boxes were placed on stage to represent three ladders. The music stands which held scripts were numbered from one to six so actors knew where they would be staged during this first  staged reading of the play. The three characters who were taking care of their aging parents would commiserate over drinks sharing stories that were both humorous and sad.

In one scene a young daughter, Vee (Alanna Fagan) was trying on her wedding dress which was in her opinion way to short and relieving. Her mom, Karen (Tiza Garland) snapped a photo on her cell phone and shared it with her friend Oscar.  He responded with a photo of a far worse wedding dress fail.  Texts flew back and forth and we were left wondering just how absurd the exchange got based on the reactions on stage.

Laurel (Avis-Marie Barnes) cared for her father with autism (Michael Morman), Oscar (Bert Rodriguez) cared for his aging mother Mamita (Blanca Goodfriend) as they searched the stage for a stray cat, And the mother caring for her argumentative mother Joann (Karin Amano) won my heart as they drove each other crazy. Only laughs with friends and some stiff drinks kept these friends sane.

Towards the end of the play each aging parent sat on one of the boxes with their care givers behind them. With baby boomers aging, these stories become more common with this generation caring for the one before. The play has plenty of heart but I didn’t get a chance to stay to the end. I am left wondering what the next step is towards the beyond and how it will affect those who invested so much of themselves. These friends seem capable of navigating even the worst times with some drinks and laughs.

Creative Team

Director: Nick Bublitz

Stage Manager: Jazlynne Williams

Stage Direction Reader and Dramaturg: Laura Swindoll

Cast

Laurel: Avis-Marie Barnes

Karen: Tiza Garland

Joann: Karin Amano

Mamita: Blanca Goodfriend

Vee: Alanna Fagan

Oscar: Bert Rodriguez

The Commodore: Michael Morman

Lonnie/Nurse Mike/ Bar Back: Sean Andric

Mozart and Dvorak

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Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra performed with Benjamin Hochman, Pianist and guest Conductor, at Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church (2021 West SR 426 Oviedo FL). It was a bit of a drive but well worth it for this concert. If fount it visually fascinating how Christ floated above the orchestra with his staff and lambs. The stained glass grew dark as the sun set.

Pam Schwartz and I managed to get a front row seat near the cello section. The church was packed yet few people ever choose to sit up front. Dvorak is widely regarded as the most distinguished of Czech composers and of course the prolific Austrian musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was among the most
versatile, and popular composers of all time.

The program included Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major and Dvorak’s: Serenade for Strings in E Major.

Barks, Bubbles and Brews

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Digress Wine, formerly Cavanaugh’s in College Park (1215 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, Florida 32804) hosted Barks Bubbles and Brews along with Woof! Orlando. I had to go to sketch this pet friendly event which was a night to mingle with fury friends while sipping spectacular wines and craft beer.

Woof! Orlando provided goodie bags filled with treats, free nail trim coupons and more.Digress Wine hosted with delicious drinks, food trucks and the perfect ambiance under twinkling lights on their patio.

I ordered a red wine and settled n to sketch any dogs I could. A husky puppy was at the next table and became my subject. Her huge paws indicated how young she was. She spent most of her time tugging at her leash to try and get to the dogs inside Digress. She was a whirlwind of frenetic activity but that didn’t seem to phase the couples at the table. The wine helped loosen me up to the challenge of sketching this frantic pooch. I am glad I  went.

Digress Wine is a casual neighborhood wine bar and retail shop that features artisanal wines and craft beers combined with old fashioned hospitality. Enjoy a bottle of wine with friends on the outdoor patio, our indoor lounge, or in our temperature-controlled wine cellar. 

Woof! Orlando is an urban oasis for the pampered pooch. Their award-winning grooming salon is the first Green pet
spa in Orlando.A tired dog is a happy dog, so play care is a dog’s dream come true. No
waiting around for the humans to return from a long day at work or
people play. They also offer boarding.