Food Not Bombs

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Every Wednesday at 5PM and Mondays at 8:30AM, Food Not Bombs sets up outside City Hall (400 South Orange Ave. Orlando FL), to feed the hungry. When I arrived people were going through clothes needed for warmth. The as of yet unfinished, tax payer funded, Multi-Million dollar Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts loomed behind them, the steel beams glowing orange in the setting sunlight. Two steel arches from a sculpture arched overhead. Someone asked me what time the food arrived. I must have looked like I was supervising since I was working on the sketch. I let him know that this was the first time I was at this particular feeding site.

Food Not Bombs used to set up in Lake Eola Park but some antiquated city ordinance states that you can not feed more than 25 people in a city park. Apparently people didn’t feel comfortable having homeless and hungry people gathering in the park. Food Not Bombs volunteers were arrested for feeding too many hungry people. Lawyers for the Food Not Bombs defendants argued that feeding the hungry was in their rights since it promoted their free speech and political views.  Court cases were won and lost in an endless cycle of litigation. Finally they were told they could set up at City Hall.

The feeding station was set up to my left as I sketched. The people who came were offered food quickly and efficiently. People sat on the benches and steps around me but no one sat on my bench. It was going to be a cold night but at least folks had warm healthy vegan food without any preaching.

Jai Gallery

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Josh Garrick informed me that he would be reciting a Homerian Greek Myth at Jai Gallery (101 South Garland Avenue Orlando FL) on Third Thursday. Josh took the gathered patrons on a journey through the world of Barbara Sorenson‘s artwork. Dancers from John DiDonna productions / Empty Spaces Theater Co(llaboration) performed to the narration. Jennifer Bonner designed some magnificent cloaks for the dancers that mimicked and accentuated tall sculptures in the room. Josh spoke of potions for the fairest in the land as he stood by large vases. I didn’t realize that this Snow White theme dated back to Greek myths.

Wendy Wallenburg was shooting pictures and Carl Knickerbocker had ventured out of his art studio to gallery hop.
Melisse Mila Makaroff was one of the dancers and I almost caught her in my sketch but the moment flowed past too quickly. The performance moved all throughout the gallery for just 20 minutes and I could only catch one view. As people mingled afterwards, I rushed to complete what I had started. This was my second sketch of the night and I needed to get home. Patrick Greene tripped on one of Barbara’s colorful metal sculptures and I laughed out loud. The pretentious veil had been lifted.

Grand Bohemian

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I went downtown to the Grand Bohemian Hotel to meet Terry after work for a drink and appetizer. My plan was to go to the Amway Center afterwards, perhaps to sketch plastic bucket drummers on the street. I had several happy hour drinks however and decided it was too cold outside to be sketching. The Grand Bohemian is where the visiting Miami Heat players were staying. Terry told me she looked out her office window and saw a huge crowd of fans surrounding the team bus. The basketball game started as we were sipping our drinks.  We could see the commentators and behind them the Amway Center looked more than half empty. I don’t think the Orlando Magic fans knew their home team would be trounced. The bartender changed the station to a college game once the Magic took to the court. Artist Donna Dowless was dropping off one of her paintings in the Grand Bohemian Gallery. She waved as she was leaving.

Terry left and decided to scout out the activity around the Amway Center. Happy hour ended as I was working on the sketch. The waitress offered me one more Blue Moon at the happy hour rate anyway. I got a text from Terry and she let me know that I had made the right decision to sketch the hotel bar, the streets around the Amway Center were deserted.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park

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Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning Novel “The Yearling” while at a typewriter on a hand made table on the front porch of this old batten board house first built in 1884. Marjorie moved into the home in 1928. She renovated the building adding indoor plumbing which was incredibly modern for the day. The home is in Cross Creek which was a several hour drive north of Orlando. The property has a small orange grove, a barn, tenant house, a garden and plenty of chickens and ducks. Terry took the tour while I sketched the 1940 Oldsmobile in the carport. The Yearling was written in 1938 and it was made into a movie staring Gregory Peck in 1946.

One of the women on Terry’s tour had been to the Rawlings home before. She thought that the ducks on the property were animatronics since they have no fear of humans.  She decided to step over a duck and one of the caretakers insisted she leave. When the tour reached the south porch, which is in my sketch, the tour guide told the story of the ice man delivering ice for the ice box. He found a snarling raccoon in there and told Marjorie he wouldn’t return until she removed the varmint.

The guest bedroom had such distinguished guests as poet Robert Frost, authors Margaret Mitchell and Thornton Wilder, artist N.C. Wyeth and actor Gregory Peck. Marjorie was friends with author Zora Neale Hurston from Eatonville Florida. She visited Marjorie but since Zora was black she couldn’t sleep in the house. She had to sleep in the tiny tenant house with the help out in the orange grove.

A bold red rooster lead a brood of hens around the yard and the ducks seemed content to soak up the sun.  Fluffy new born duck chicks bobbed like corks in a small pool near the hen house. Time really feels like it has stood still at the Rawlings home. Marjorie died in 1958. Major restoration to the home was completed in 1996 and preservation work is ongoing.

Terry and I had lunch at the Yearling Restaurant down the road where Willie Green played the blues.  A sparrow seemed intent on getting inside. It flapped its wings and fluttered up and down against the window pane unable to pass through the mysterious glass. The fried green tomatoes and catfish were fried and filling.

“Bless Us”, I thought, “the world must be hungry.” And so it is. Hungry for food and drink-not so much for the mouth as for the mind; not for the stomach, but for the spirit.””

– Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Drip “Super Heros”

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While Mega-Con was at the Orange County Convertion Center, Drip staged a special “Super Heros” themed show. On March 16th one dancer was sick so Jessica Mariko, the dance company’s founder, stepped in to perform as Red. I hadn’t seen Jessica dance since she did a solo routine at Slingapour’s downtown.  Other dancers were a bit nervous to have the creative director performing with them. Jessica performed a hot sensual dance routine with Blue that was stellar. Some dancers have the ability to grab your attention and hold it with their every move. It is obvious Jessica has that spark. It is a shame she has to spend so much time marketing and doing the paperwork to keep this amazing show afloat.

The first act,in which the romantic leads meet, happened in the bar area. I liked how the dancing happened on the bar and patrons became part of the performance. A police siren and flashing red and blue lights announced the start of the main performance. The wagon wheel was no longer above the heads of the rock band. I never understood how that wheel tied into the show anyway. A plastic cage is used in the beginning of the show protecting the audience from the sand and paint that the performers throw. This gives a false sense of security because later the walls were removed.

My sketch got drenched several times and my white Drip T-shirt was covered in paint. Unfortunately the crowd was rather thin. It must be difficult to get Sci-Fi nerds out to see cutting edge performances.

Film Maker Forum

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At the Regal Winter Park Cinemas, on April 12th at 2:30PM, the Florida Film Festival hosted some of the most talented new independent filmmakers every year and always sets aside one day just to pick their brains. This lively and dynamic exchange of ideas and know-how inevitably defines a high point in the festival—peppered with tales of triumph, challenge, and creative methods. The panel was moderated by Florida Film Festival selections committee member, and Rollins College Professor, Denise Cummings, Department of Critical Media and Cultural Studies.

Marc Menchaca was an actor who decided to become an independent film producer and director.  His film, “This is Where We Live“, is about an intelligent young man who suffers from Cerebral Palsy who has a caretaker. The scene screened showed the two in a restaurant getting ready to place an order. The caretaker tries to get an order from the young man but because communication was impossible, they can’t reach a consensus. Someone waiting behind them says, “For crying out loud” and the caretaker gets abusive saying he should air his complaint to the young man with cerebral palsy. The scene packed a punch even though no punches were thrown.

Todd Looby‘s, film called, “Be Good“, was about a young filmmaker who has a new child and he is realizing his creative freedom has vanished. Stephen Silha had a documentary called “Big Joy“, about James Broughton, a poet and filmmaker in San Francisco whose mantra was “follow your Wierd”. He celebrated pleasure and sexuality with humor and joy. Justin Lang was a young first time director who created a horror film called “The Dark“. He recounted his youth in which he covered himself completely under the sheets in order to sleep, because his brother told him that aliens would eat him at night. Renae Su created a short animated film called, “Daisy“, that is sort of a story reel with narration about a beautiful girl who always makes men fall in love with her. Her life becomes difficult when a man feels the need to possess her and he locks her in her room to keep other men from seeing her. Renae said she got the idea for the film from a male classmate who always made women uncomfortable, because he didn’t know how to approach them.

When the audience was asked for questions, a woman asked Renae “How do you feel being the only woman on the panel?” Renae said that she hadn’t thought about it. Then the woman asked if any of the male panelists wanted to address the issue. Justin pointed out that he had studied with and learned from many great women filmmakers. The conversation went on for some time and then Marc said, ” I am part Mexican, so this panel is more diverse than you think.” That got a good laugh. Afterwards in the Daily City Lounge area, several film makers complained about how much time was wasted answering questions of gender rather than discussing the creative and financial challenges of making a film.

Bill Plympton

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Bill Plympton came to Full Sail Live to talk to students about his experiences as an independent animation film maker. He was an illustrator in NYC in the late 70s and early 80s. He drew a face of an average looking business man on the 18 by 24 inch pad on stage. That was the character of his first animated film called “Your Face.” When he went to a screening for that film he was amazed when the whole audience started laughing. That moment changed his life. He drew satirical and funny illustrations but he never felt the audiences immediate reaction. “Your Face” was nominated for an Oscar and suddenly Plympton was on the map.

Bill stopped illustrating and was committed to animation full time.  When he started out there wasn’t much animation going on at the big studios. As a small boy his dream was to be a Disney Animator. In the 80’s Disney started rebuilding its animation department. They called Bill saying the would like to talk to him. A Disney lawyer showed up at his studio. Bill was offered one million dollars if he would work for Disney Feature Animation. Bill was ecstatic, thin was a dream come true. He began negotiating for the job. As he put it Disney isn’t about good cop, bad cop when it comes to negotiating. It is more like, bad cop and anti Christ. Bill asked if he could work on his little films on the weekends. He was told, “Sure, but Disney will own it.” What about script ideas? “Disney owns it.” What if I have a dream?” “Disney owns it.” He realized he would have no control over what he would work on. What if he ended up having to work on TV animation like Duck Tales? In the end he turned down the offer to continue producing independent films.

Bill showed several of his short films along with work from a feature film that is in the pipe line. He showed “Waiting for Her Sailor” which was just 30 seconds and was hilarious. He is now working on a film that is about a whale that falls in love with a human guy. The guy likes fashion models, so the whale becomes a model. He is working on a feature film called “Cheatin” which is about a very attractive couple that meet and fall in love. Since they are so attractive others get jealous and try to break them up. They become paranoid and try to kill each other.

Bill drew constantly during his presentation. He said he sometimes wakes up at night so excited about a project that he has to do a few more drawings before he can get back to sleep. When working on a film, he can produce up to 100 drawings a day. Some consider him a masochist, he considers himself a hedonist since he loves his work.

The Anatomy of a Short Film

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As part of the Florida Film Festival, a panel discussion was held on Wednesday, April 10, 2013
between 1:30 and 3PM
in the Full Sail University in the Entertainment Business Auditorium, located next to the Full Sail Live Venue, (141 University Park Drive, Winter Park, FL).  The panel discussion featured industry experts and members of the Full Sail University Film degree program faculty as they took a closer look at the unique components of the short film genre. From story structure issues and thematic considerations, to logistical considerations and new modes of marketing and distribution, this event offered an inside look at the anatomy of the living, breathing short film making process.

The main theme that was stressed again and again was that short films need to be character driven and involve universal themes. The short film is a great place to experiment and it is a safe place to fail. It was pointed out that many beginning film makers will try to do too much in their first short. There can’t be sub plots and too much back story. Bottom line, the short needs to be, well, SHORT! Three minutes was the suggested duration. Longer films don’t get placement in film festivals because the promoters want to show as many films as possible. Students fall into the trapping of using complex camera moves and crane shots but you need to ask yourself, “is the shot really forwarding the story?” Story is king and queen.

A student walked up to the microphone and asked, how he could get backers interested in his idea. A moderator said, “First and foremost, you are selling yourself and then the movie idea.” He asked the student to give him his elevator pitch for the movie. The student began and honestly I stopped listening because the convoluted story took too long to tell. The moderator shouted,”Bing! Time is up, this is my floor.” Everyone laughed. He stressed that the student needed to trim his elevator pitch to be sure he had the person’s interest. The internet has made it so that stories need to be told quicker.

Panelists offered up films that they love that should help a film student to develop story. Films included, Touch of Evil, The Third Man, When Worlds Collide, and Some Like It Hot. That evening I went to the Enzian to see a program of animated shorts. My favorite film was, “Marcel, King of the Tervuren“. it was a great character driven story about a rooster who looses his eye and his brood of hens to his son in a cock fight. Marcel returns and then fights and kills his son. The style was painterly and bold. The Bill Plympton film, “Drunker Than a Skunk“, had it’s world premiere at the festival. It is a Western drawn entirely with ball point pen. The character designs are quirky and amazing. At the film maker talk back afterwards, Plympton said that an animated short costs him about $1000 per minute to produce. Drunker Than a Skunk cost him $5000 to produce. He traded an amplifier for someone’s work on the sound track. His wife Sandrine did all of the color work and once his son, Luca, is old enough, he’ll be part of the production team. Of course, being able to do 100 drawings a day helps. He stood on the stage holding his new born son along with his wife who helps him with each film project.

Plympton’s three rules for making a short film are…

1. Make it SHORT!

2. Keep it CHEAP!

3. Make it FUNNY!

As he said, that describes many of his past girlfriends.

Old Sport

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This year, the Old Sport Champagne Badminton League and Postmodern Literary Society presented 24 Hours of Old Sport – 2013 (First Annual Bonnet Edition).
Saturday March 23, 1 PM to Sunday March 24, 1 PM. Old Sport is a yearly two day party that happens at the Wise Acre Farm in Sorento Fl.

Getting to the Wise Acre Farm was an adventure in itself. Winding country roads gave way to dirt roads. The GPS kept Terry and I on track but the road seemed to stop. We pulled into a horse farm where a suicidal dog kept walking in front of the car.  The dog wasn’t barking but Terry was sure we were in the wrong place. We pulled out and drove through a gate and then drove through a field up a hill towards a gazebo. A bonfire hinted that we had reached our destination.

The Old Sport “Super Committee” consists of
Kim Buchheit (Custodian and Referee)
Naomi Butterfield (Bonnet Judge and Egg Stasher)
Rachel Kapitan (Old Sport Stylist and Mixologist)
and Mr. Robert Johnson (“Token Male”, Live Music and Jam Leader)Terry and I arrived just in time to sample dinner. Everyone sat in a line in their lawn chairs watching the fire. In all there were perhaps 30 Old Sports in attendance. Everyone had been issued lanyards and you could get stickers if you performed stellar deeds. Terry got a sticker for her pink bonnet. Half way through the night she discovered that the hat was meant to be worn inverted inside out. Rachel Kapitan won the egg hunt contest. She knew she had a shot at winning since she was a home town egg hunt champion in her youth. The bar was located in the garage and I sampled the white wine we had brought.

Robert Johnson began performing on the make shift wooden stage set up under a tent. His band “Everyday Ghosts” had split up so he sang solo.  The stage was lit with citronella candles and the fire’s blaze. Electric lights also rimmed the tent’s edge. I was offered a sticky smoors and a milky herb drink as I sketched. People circled up around the fire and the tribal dancing began with drums keeping beat. Dancer, Micihael Sloan, kept the dancing primal and borderline dangerous. He jumped over the flames with grace, and did cartwheels. He wore some pink bunny ears and by evenings end he was christened, “the fire bunny.”



Terry and I had brought a tent but Kim offered up her studio which is where we crashed for the night. Amazingly, the next morning the fire was still blazing. All the Sping trimmings from the farms trees had been burned. A pink blaze on a wooden fence marked the spot where a freeway would one day cut through the property. Robert Johnson’s stage was likely in the south bound lane.

Florida Film Festival

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I made it to the Florida Film Festival on April 8th for Italian Cinema Night. The film 8 1/2 by Frederico Fellini was being screened at 6:30PM followed by free Italian food by the fountain. I went to The Daily City Lounge and found Mark Baratelli sitting in one of the 60’s styled plastic chairs busy checking his iPhone. Every chair had Daily City stickers on them. I had done a quick painting of a Hollywood red carpet couple with the faces cut out. I wanted to see the board in action. The corners of the painting had been crudely painted wit grey paint that was three shades lighter in value than the grey I had painted. I’ll have to go back to touch it up. I was about an hour into the sketch when a filmmaker and her parents stopped by. The parents stuck their faces in the celebrity port holes for the photo opportunity. The wife’s face fit snug as a bug but he husband had a large head and he angled his face thanks to his daughter’s art direction. Within a second the photo was shot and they dispersed.

Mark had plenty of swag at his lounge. He had fliers printed with suggested Orlando hot spots for visiting filmmakers.  He also had hand fans with The Daily City logo on them. The lounge was unfortunately located behind another information tent so patrons at the Eden Bar couldn’t see the lounge. Mark told me that the lounge had been dead for the first two days of the festival. I left the seats in pencil for as long as I could, hoping a crowd would come to populate the scene. They never showed. Before my sketch was complete, the bar maid started wheeling away the portable bar. Mark shouted out, “Does that mean its over!” She shouted back, “It’s over alright.” Across the street, Mark noticed some guy in a large Mexican hat pounding a drum.

When the sketch was done, I went to see if the Italian food was ready. They were still setting up so I decided to leave. I still haven’t seen a film. I want to see an animated feature called “The Painting” directed by Jean-Francois Lagionie. The film is about an unfinished work of art. Lola’s best friend Claire loves Ramo, but their love is forbidden. Claire and Lola are “Halfies,” or artist’s unfinished characters, and Ramo is an “Alldunn,” or completed figure. These classes within the painting do not mingle socially, and when Claire and Ramo’s love is uncovered, Lola and Claire are forced to search out the creator somewhere near the border of the painting. On their adventure they meet Quill, a “Sketchie,” or a simple charcoal outline, from the class below theirs. I’m starting to feel that I need to learn French and move to Paris.