Fake Landlord Scam

Posted on by Thor

On Friday January 14th as I drove home after sketching on Virginia Drive, I was surprised to see a police car parked a block from my home, with its red and blue lights cutting into the night. A Channel 9 News van was parked behind the police cruiser. Several young men stood in the street with large black plastic bags piled near by, their heads bowed.

This McMansion was build in 2008 just before the Housing market crash which sent the country into a recession and resulted in countless foreclosures. After this 7 bedroom, 6.5 bathroom, 4242 square foot home was built, it remained vacant. It is estimated to be worth over $710,400 yet it was never sold. For the last five years the place has been abandoned. The grass turned into tall weeds and the pool became a green sludge. The neighborhood homeowners association seemed to ignore the buildings
abandoned state. Then again, abandoned, unmaintained, homes are now a common sight
throughout the neighborhood.

Kelly Wyatt moved in last week with her five sons signing a rental agreement to pay $1,800 a month. She paid $1,800 cash up front. The usual rent for a place this big would be close to $4,000 a month. She was told she was getting a deal if she would maintain the place. My wife saw one of the sons mowing the lawn for the first time in years. Dead tree branches were moved curbside for pick up. Kelly majored in the Visual and Performing Arts at Owens Community College in Toledo Ohio before moving to Florida. She is the CEO of Diversity Theater Company and works at Glasshouse Ministries as a chief executive officer.

Kelly called Channel 9 News when the sheriff’s office informed her that she had just three hours to leave the home she thought she was renting legally. Her family stayed in the 5501 Bay Side Drive Mansion just four or five nights before she was told she would have to leave. She was the victim of a scam. The real owners, Jody and Monica Mendelsen who live in a humble waterfront home in Plantation Florida, had no idea that anyone was living in their Bay Side home until the Orlando Sheriff’s department called.

The scam artist may have created fake identification papers in the Mendelsen’s name. The big mystery is how this fake landlord got the keys to the abandoned home. According to Kelly’s description he was about 5’10” tall, a bit heavy built, perhaps Indian with slightly grey hair and he drove a silver SUV. It is not clear if all the locks had been changed in the home or if the original home keys had been used. No one has been able to contact the fake landlord. Apparently this type of scam happens often.

Kelly, her five sons, a yellow Labrador and a cat were suddenly homeless.
“I feel like I have been robbed.” Wyatt said. The family had little in the way of possessions. There were a few suitcases, a couple of computers, a house plant, a box fan and clothes in plastic bags. There wasn’t any furniture to be moved. Most of her belonging were still in storage in Ohio. Apparently viewers of the Channel 9 News broadcast started calling the station offering assistance. I don’t know if this family has a roof over its head today.

As I sketched the home, I heard loud squeaks coming from inside like the sound of a basketball player’s sneakers on the polished floor boards.  The NBA finals were flickering onto TV screens across America. I finally realized the sound was of a fire detector with a dying battery. Once again the building was abandoned with no one to replace the battery, a symbol of false hope and greed.

Hyper-Bolic

Posted on by Thor

Hyper-Bolic, written and performed by Jessica Earley, was staged at the Venue on Virginia Avenue before Fringe.  This show was raw and intensely personal, being all about Jessica’s break up with a boyfriend. Lindsay Smith and Stephanie Lister helped Jessica throughout the production. This performance was for one night only and the Venue was packed. The performance combined puppetry, dance and some forms of performance that defy definition. The show was build around the five stages of grief. I knew Jessica from her paintings which often expose women’s issues. When she spoke of her work in the past, she was always soft spoken yet sincere.

Things began quietly enough with a short shadow puppet show that presented love in it’s ideal form, lasting forever and surmounting mountains and streams. I sketched Jessica as she held a deer puppet as she said, “Oh Dear!” The stage was covered in white blankets and Jessica was covered in a white robe appearing like an ancient shaman. She sang to a small horse puppet that questioned her singing abilities. On this lonely landscape she masturbated with a huge sewing needle and held a conversation with a button which someone later told me was a symbol for the vagina.

Jessica stood on a table and imitated the poses of ideal couples who hugged and expressed love in idealized advertising images. The images flickered by at an increasing pace and she struggles to keep up. She used a cardboard laptop to try and reach out via social media which offered empty meaningless comfort from well meaning friends, leaving her lonelier than before.

A large dream catcher was assembled and Jessica became entwined
in it and struggled to break free as if caught in a spider’s web. Things truly became raw when Jessica called on a few friends to come on stage and join her in a ritual of healing. They each placed their hands on her as she raised her arms and shouted to the sky, “Heal me!” I noticed one of her friends had tears in her eyes as she participated in the ritual. Jack Fields who was seated at my table was called up and he told me later that he didn’t realize he would become part of the act, but having participated he felt even more involved in the act of recovery.

Jessica was able to catch lightning in a bottle. Everyone has experienced the heartbreak of relationships which don’t stand the test of time, and Jessica had found a way to express the torment and agony. I knew that Jessica had started modeling at Full Sail and it made sense that this exposure offered a form of personal acceptance. At the end of the show she stood before the audience naked as her hands laced through words of redemption and recovery.  I truly hope that she expands on the show and hopefully brings it to next years Fringe. She has hit a raw and fragile nerve. I had witnessed a performance that was truly trans-formative. How amazing to see an artist hit fill stride, finding new and creative ways to express herself. I felt honored to have been present.

Brad Catron Quartet

Posted on by Thor

On April 17th I went to Tastings (164 Lake Ave Maitland Fl), to listen to jazz and sketch.  The Jazz Tastings Quartet performs every Friday starting at 7PM. I ordered a white wine and a lobster bisque that was delicious. The band got on stage just as I was finishing my bisque. Cary Frank was on the keyboards and you can’t see him in my sketch. He is behind the bass player, John Toney.  I recognized John, I had sketched him perform once before at the Obama Campaign Headquarters. Brad Catron was up front with his self deprecating humor and fast fingers on guitar. The fish bowl tip jar was half full of dollar bills from the start.

The music was lively helping motivate every line and splash of color. After my second cup of white wine the sketch started to look not so bad. As often happens, the band took a break before the sketch was done. I kept painting, forgetting about local color, and going with colors that worked for the sketch.

It was a good sketch session, although the bisque and wines were more expensive than I expected. Most people don’t recognize the cost of making art.  Maybe I should put a tip jar out every time I sketch. With my luck, I’d be arrested for busking or begging.

UCF Book Festival

Posted on by Thor

On April 13th, Terry and I went to the UCF Book Festival in the UCF Arena. We actually had to take separate cars since I had to teach at Full Sail right afterwards. The central court area of the arenas was jammed full of booths full of authors selling their signed books. Terry actually knew one of the first authors, Elizabeth Allen, who wrote a book called, “Who Got Liz Gardner“. The book is about the sexual exploits of the young author. I haven’t read it, but Terry loved it. Liz sat at the table with her husband who was also an author. The table had a divider down the middle. Liz met her husband at an acting workshop where actors had to break up into teams. Liz wasn’t paired with anyone, and the instructor asked the class, “Who got Liz Garner? The title implies the question, “Who married Liz Gardner?”

We bumped into a lawyer who is also an author, He advised me to start putting large watermarks on my sketched to avoid people using my work online for free. I am experimenting with watermarks now but really want to avoid a rude symbol that dominates every drawing. The lawyer was saddened by some of the authors who self published books and had no distribution plans other than at small book festivals like this. Large areas of stadium seating were blocked off with black cloth drops. I took up the challenge to sketch the overall view of the cavernous space while Terry explored more authors talks. Several authors in my sketch were giving a talk to three or four people seated in the stands. The audience might have just been family.

Storm Troopers invaded the children’s reading area and then patrolled the show floor along with some Jedi and Sith Lords. I take Star Wars as a movie franchise not a classic novel, but I suppose the kids didn’t care. A UCF football uniform was set up as a photo opportunity where you could wedge your face above the shoulder pads to look like you were in uniform. I later discovered that authors, Bob Kealing and Jeff Kunerth were at the Book Fair and somehow I missed them.

On the Center stage a poetry slam began with a half full audience in 5 rows of folding seats. After the sketch was done, Terry and I got some free Slurpees. Terry had seen enough so we headed out. We grabbed some lunch a Logan’s Steakhouse and then I went off to work.

pARTicipate: Side Show of the Senses

Posted on by Thor

pARTicipate was an exotic fundraising gala held on April 6th, under the stars and throughout the Art and History Museum’s beautiful Maitland Art Center campus, the stage was perfectly set for this Sideshow of the Senses, an interactive event that showcased local visual artists, fabulous food, and intriguing performances. The campus came to life, with every nook filled with art and activity. Guests could explore the grounds as they enjoyed a progressive dining experience, featuring cuisine by celebrated local chef Jamie McFadden of Cuisiniers. There were fine wines and beers at tasting centers throughout the campus.

Art installation dining tables, created by the participating artists, offered guests a unique dining experience. Select artists created art during the event, as they shared their stories and insights. The silent auction of artworks, donated by popular Central Florida artists, generated some lively bidding. Talented Phantasmagoria entertainers from Empty Spaces Theatre Co(llaboration), under the direction of John DiDonna, performed throughout the evening. Phantasmagoria is a local macabre performing troupe of fire-breathers, musicians, and acrobats.

When Terry and I arrived, I immediately scouted around looking for my sketch opportunity. When I entered a secluded inner sanctum of the Maitland Campus I found this table with a nun standing beside a skeleton. I was certain she was a live model posing as a statue. I approached tentatively until I finally saw that her plastic gaze was eternal. I wandered some more to look at other decorated tables. Dawn Schreiner had set up a tree with play money as leaves. Each bill had one of her paintings on it.

I then bumped into Camilo Velasquez. I told him about my scare with the nun, and he told me that he had decorated that table. A photographer wanted to interview Camilo and that settled the matter. I followed them back to the nun. Camilo had grown up with dominant priests and nuns in New York and he always felt like an outsider. The table design had been inspired by the art of Paul delVaux, a Belgian artist who lived through the atrocities of World War II. As I worked on this sketch, Melissa Mila Marakoff, one of the Phantasmagoria performers, slipped up behind me. She whispered in my ear, “I don’t mean to startle you.” I just about jumped out of my skin. She startled me half to death and I shouted out with a start. Everyone had a good laugh. It was as if death had whispered to call me away before my work was done.

With the sketch complete I grabbed a few morsels to eat. I sat at Dawn Schreiner’s table and after a few texts, Terry found me there. Dawn started disassembling her table display. Two small doves were in a cage hanging from a tree. I hadn’t noticed them until Dawn pointed them out. They were puffed up and snuggled together. Dawn’s play money paintings had a draw back in that some patrons thought they could take a painting if they replaced it with a real dollar bill. Obviously these patrons didn’t know the true value of her work. The pARTicipate Event raised over $30,000 gross, $18,000 net, with proceeds benefiting art and history programming at the Museums. Bats fluttered in the darkness as Terry and I made our way back to the car.

Weekend Top 6 Picks

Saturday June 16th, 2013

9:30am – 5:30pm  Orlando Anime Day $3 International Palms Resort & Conference Center 6515 International Dr Orl FL 32819. One day anime marketplace that brings all your anime/manga needs to you & Features over 2,000 sq ft of dealers, Video/Event room, prize giveaways, raffle drawing, cosplay, & FREE Parking.

www.orlandoanimeday.net

http://animecons.com/events/info.shtml/4139/Orlando_Anime_Day_2013#

1pm – 3pm FREE Plein Air Paint demonstration by Frank Ferrante. Cottage, located on beautiful Lake Lily park in Maitland. The demonstration is FREE and all are welcome to attend. This Plein Air influenced oil painting demonstration is for painters who want to develop a sound understanding of the fundamentals of outdoor painting. The demonstration will focus on the formal elements of painting composition, color values, structure and form. Emphasis will be placed on composition, capturing light and dark shapes, atmosphere and mood while using strong color harmony. We hope to see you at the Cottage this Saturday!

7:30pm – 9:30pm Coupled: The Game Show & Game Night. The Abbey 100 South Eola Drive, Orlando, Florida 32801. Tickets, which are $12.50 per person, can be purchased online in advance as well as at The Abbey. Created by Curtis Earth Entertainment and Great Dates Orlando, Coupled begins with a hilarious interpretation of the classic he said/she said Newlywed Game, the event will invite 6 couples to compete on stage for prizes as they demonstrate how well they REALLY know each other. Of course, Curtis will be mixing in trivia throughout so audience members can win some fabulous prizes too! Immediately following the ninety-minute show, classic board games (Sorry, Connect Four, etc.) will be set up at tables throughout this posh venue so you and your sweetie can continue the fun well into the night. In addition, we’ll be playing Twister, Musical Chairs, and Dance Freeze on the dance floor. Expect lots of prizes, drink specials and more fun than you could ever imagine having on date night.

Sunday June 17th 2013.

11am – 2pm Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s! Hamburger Mary’s 110 West Church Street

Orlando, FL 32801  (321) 319-0600 Show tunes, drink specials, and an amazing
show with Broadway performances by The Minx, Ginger Minj, and special
guests. Seating at 11:00am with show starting at 12pm 

6pm – 8pm FREE SHUT YOUR FACE! Poetry Slam by Curtis Meyer! La Casa De La Paellas 10414 E Colonial Dr Orlando FL 32817. The only current ongoing slam in Orlando officially certified by Poetry Slam Incorporated, IE. Send a team to Nationals as well as poets to The Individual World Poetry Slam & Women of The World Poetry Slam! $50 to the winner! If you’ve never seen or been in a slam before, it’s definitely worth checking out! INFO: curtisxmeyer@hotmail.com

www.casadelaspaellas.com

9pm – 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.

Earth Fest

Posted on by Thor

Before work on Saturday I went to Earth Fest in Lake Concord Park (95 Triplet Lake Drive Casselberry FL). When I arrived I walked towards the sound of music. The Hindu Cowboys were performing and I immediately started a sketch. Next to me a bicyclist stopped and watched me intently. His name was Hector and he came from New York City so we had something in common. He lamented the fact that he seldom sees artists like myself sketching around town. In NYC there are herds of artists in Times Square. He also lamented that you never see musicians performing on the streets of Orlando.

The Hindu Cowboys finished up their first set playing Johnnie Cash‘s Folsom Prison Blues.  While they were gone I added watercolor washes to the sketch. When I was done, I wandered through the sea of tents. I was hungry and looking for a food tent. Someone offered me a health bar that tasted like a Fig Newton. One tent had an active bee hive on display. By the time I was ready to head to work, the Hindu Cowboys were on stage again playing Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd. The music faded away as I made my way across the ever busy 17-92 back to my car. Maybe there is something wrong in this need to sketch everyday. A movie trailer for the next Thor movie, hafd the tag line, “What would you sacrifice for what you believe in.”.

Second Harvest Volunteers

Posted on by Thor

Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida is a private, nonprofit organization that collects and distributes donated food to more than 500 nonprofit partner agencies in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. Mindy Ortiz organizes volunteers for Second Harvest Food Bank. I arranged to go in April 18th to sketch volunteers at work. Volunteers work around two shifts one from 8:30AM-11:30AM  and then 1PM-4PM. I got up with the early birds to get my sketch. We all waited in a large break room  whose walls had a brightly painted mural  of Jack and the Bean Stalk Vegetables painted by Disney artists.

Five adolescent boys sat at one table with a young woman who I assumed must be their teacher. There were two other volunteers seated at different tables. I asked the young woman what she was going to be doing and she explained that she would be sorting food in the refrigerated room. CEO Dave Krepcho took me into that huge refrigerated room on a walking tour of the state of the art facility. Some of the food in there had started to spoil but much of it was quite edible so the spoiled food had to be separated out. I didn’t have a sweatshirt or sweater that day and I got quite cold fast. When we exited, my glasses immediately fogged up. Dave had put his glasses in his pocket to keep them warm.

When it was time to get to work, the young men were shown huge pallets of cabbages that had to be put into red mesh bags 3/4 full. Those mesh bags were then put into a cardboard box on another palette. Everyone wore medical gloves. It took well over an hour to get all that produce bagged. When they finished up, I finished the sketch. Feeding the hungry takes many hands. The organization’s name, Second Harvest, made perfect sense watching these boys at work. Should you decide you want to help out, be sure to contact Mindy.

Eating Pasta Off the Floor

Posted on by Thor

Maria Grazia Affinito shared her story of her contentious relationship she had with her mom in the red venue at this year’s Fringe. Her mother actually tries to sell Maria off in the supermarket. Maria’s imitation of her mom’s mannerisms and speech were hilarious. Once while watching a documentary about the atrocities of WWII, her mom grew silent. Maria realizes that her mom must have been raped in the war. She then recounts how the smell of cold cement could bring her right back to a horrible incident involving four boys.

The way Maria recounted and acted out every incident with her mom was heart warming and humerus.  This was a mother daughter relationship that had endured many knocks. There were times when Maria literally wanted to kill her mom and it took the soothing reassurances of a relative to keep the peace. This relationship stood up to the test of time and trials. There was plenty of laughter and some sadness and when it was all told, the audience stood and applauded.

Orange Street Riders

Posted on by Thor

I didn’t spend as much time at the Fringe outdoor stage as I usually do, but I heard Jessica Pawli did an amazing job booking local bands. There was one opportunity that happened between shows and I was waiting for Terry to arrive. The Orange Street Riders were performing and it was a great set. They performed with an energetic harmonica player, a guitar and drums. Large cans of libations were on the stage. Listening to these guys made me realize that I should make more of an effort to sketch the local music scene. Rick Lane was in the audience bobbing his head in appreciation.

Antony Bolante the writer of this years “Onomatopoeia“, met me as I was working to pick up a sketch. He thought ahead and actually had an 11 by 14 inch portfolio to slip the sketch into. I know that piece is going to an appreciative owner. Anyway two thumbs up for The Orange Street Riders. I’ll be looking to catch a longer set from them sometime in the future. Time to hit the open road.

Burnt at the Steak

Posted on by Thor

Carolann Valentino Productions of NYC, presented a one-woman musical featuring 18 hilarious characters portrayed through song, dance, comedy and audience improvisation at the Orlando Fringe. She reenacted her time managing a multi million dollar steakhouse in NYC. The one thing I learned is that you can earn $200,000 a year managing the service staff at such a restaurant. Unfortunately such a job is all consuming allowing little time to go to auditions as an actress.

One guy got up from his seat in the audience mid way through the show and exited through the fire exit. I was seated on my artist stool next to the exit so I closed the door behind him to keep the harsh sunlight from cutting across the stage. I wondered if he couldn’t stand the show or if he had to pee after drinking too many beers in the beer tent. The fire exit wouldn’t close completely but at least it didn’t set off an alarm.

As an autobiographical piece, the act seemed a bit self serving. The salary mentions came across as bragging and the imitations of the staff she managed seemed comic at the staff’s expense. Carolann called several men up to sit in the restaurant chairs and she had some flirty interactive fun with them. The musical number with audience participation, highlighted all the different cuts of beef using a Sound of Music song as the foundation. Orlando is a service industry town and this show made me realize that I never want to work in a restaurant. Of course in Orlando you are lucky to make minimum wage with no benefits. The premise of the show was sound, but it seemed to run too long.