Pre-Pandemic: Baldwin Dog Park

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Pam and I used to take our dogs to the dog park almost every weekend. We haven’t gone to the dog park for a year now. I pass Baldwin Park every Sunday when I drive to Crealde School of Art to teach. I have seldom seen a mask as I drive by and I have made it a game to count the number of mask less mouth breather I see. The number usually exceeds 20 and I don’t count people facing away from me.

Now that Pam an I have our first shot of vaccine e are thinking forward to place we might go again when fully vaccinated. The dog park will certainly e one of those treks out into the world again. Our pups get to walk around the block fairly often and we go on weekend to much less crowded parks for careful distanced walks.

Pam is making plans to see family again. She used to visit her parents every holiday but hasn’t seen them in a year. We are also considering having house guests who have been fully vaccinated. Simple pleasure may once again be coming. I am even considering getting out to sketch outdoor theater so my sketchbook will once again fill with discoveries as I explore the world again.

Baldwin Bark

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As I write this, Hurricane Dorian has become a category 5 storm, causing devastation in the Bahamas as it heads west towards Florida. Earlier in the week, Orlando was right in the line of the storm’s path, but newer computer forecasts show the storm turning north and heading up the coast of Florida without making land fall. Orlando is still in the cone of uncertainty. This is all happening on Labor Day weekend, which was already a long weekend because of the holiday, and now the city of Orlando, as well as Orange County, have shut down through Wednesday. The result is cabin fever, since most events that I would want to sketch are also cancelled.

For three days in a row Pam and I have taken the dogs to the dog park to let them run and expend some energy. The result is calmer, sleepier puppies. Although Donkey is a bit of a hurricane in her own right. That dog had already eaten a coffee table and several TV remotes. Couches are shredded and toys are just tiny shredded bits that get clogged Debbie the Deebot in any clean up attempt. The threat of a possible storm outside pales to the ongoing devastation from Hurricane Donkey inside.

At the dog park Donkey runs everywhere at full speed with her long tongue hanging out of her mouth. She has a high pitched bark that is created without her ever moving her jaws. Sprout, on the other hand, tracks dogs in order to hump them, from the front or back, it doesn’t matter. He was fixed but that doesn’t stop that primal urge to shake those hips. The final trip to a dog park ended with an outer rain band soaking everyone. I was the only person with an umbrella but it wasn’t much help with the rain coming in horizontally in high winds. Now we are hunkered down and just waiting to see if the storm will turn to the north before hitting us. The forecasters might have fancy computer models, but the storm will do what it wants. Right now Orlando is under a tropical storm warning and I can see the hurricane on my iPhone radar. For the first time I can watch the storms progress any time I want. I’m hoping the winds that hit Orlando will just be around 39 miles per hour. We will just have to wait and see.

Weekend Top 6 Picks

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Weekend Top Six Picks.

Saturday July20, 2013

10am to 12pm Free to watch: Splash and Dash, Baldwin Park, New Broad Street and Jake Street. Runners face splash zones, water gun snipers, balloon attacks, slip and slides and more.

11am to 5pm Free: Fairy Festival. Avalon 1211 Hillcrest Street Orlando FL. Craft vendors best dressed Fairy prizes. 

4:30pm and 7:30pm Shows Saturday and Sunday. $20 “Violin(ce)“. Mandell Theater, The John and Rita Lowndes Shakespeare Center. Located in Loch Haven Park across from the Museum of Art. A Violent Fusion of Combat/Dance/Movement/Spoken Word/Aerial. https://www.facebook.com/events/525430484160506/


Sunday July 21, 2013

11am to 1pm Show for a burger: Broadway Brunch at Hamburger Mary’s.  110 West Church Street Orlando, FL 32801 Ph (321) 319-0600.

5pm to 7pm Free: Orlando Bike Polo. Langford Park 1808 East Central Blvd. orlandobikepolo.com

9pm to 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.

Chronic Damage

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I went to the Baldwin Park First Friday Art Stroll for the first time. I bumped into Brad Biggs who organizes the event and he said artists were happy with sales leading into the holiday season. The art stroll used to take place in Ivanhoe Village but since it has moved to Baldwin Park, It has grown in size. Artists set up tables on the sidewalks along New Broad Street. I settled in to sketch the work of Shane Malesky of Chronic Damage. His work is marketed as horrifically delicious. His wife Heather was helping him set up. They found an electrical outlet which meant  they had plenty of light. I liked that he had a bold study of a Vincent Van Gogh painting of the artist walking on the roadside. He explained to a passer by that the image showed the artist forging his own path, even if it was a lonely path.

I rather liked the work because of its bold bright colors and dark subject matter. A human skull with is jaw propped open held his business cards. Artists would visit each others booths. One artist vowed to murder the squirrels in his attic by any means necessary. Next to Shane was Jose Tores who came from Deltona to show his decorative art on wood. He spoke with me for a while about how Japanese animation had inspired him to start sketching. Brian Stuckey had photo prints of sculptures done in a bold cartoonish style. They looked like complete scenes from an animated short. Vaughn Belak was having great sales in October and perhaps his quirky dark imagery will continue selling right through the new year. First Friday’s Art Stroll is TONIGHT starting at 6PM. It is a great place to get some original art. Then again you could just order a print or original from this site.

Buzzcatz

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On Saturday, Terry and I went to the 5th Annual Baldwin Park Art & Jazz Festival. The festival looked very much like every other festival I have been to in Baldwin Park. Vendors arts and crafts tents were lined up down the length of New Broad Street. There are always a wide assortment of dogs being walked in this Celebration like “Leave it to Beaver” neighborhood. Our first order of business was to find some lunch. We decided to eat at La Bella Luna which was an Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria. Terry ordered a chicken Caesar salad and I ordered Lasagna. The chicken in Terry’s salad was dry, overcooked and she couldn’t eat it. My lasagna was tasteless except for the excessively salty sauce. I however can eat anything, although my stomach sometimes complains. The waiter asked how everything was and he got an earful from Terry. She said she was doing him a favor since the restaurant wouldn’t be around for long if this is what then were passing off as food. He would be better off finding a better restaurant to work in.

After lunch we ran into Hal Stringer who was displaying his colorful paintings. He relaxed in the shade of a tree and watched as people examined his bold landscape paintings. He applies the paint thickly with a pallet knife. My favorite painting was an abstract that resembled liquid fire. Hal pointed out the program to us and told us where the two stages were set up. Terry and I wandered to the end of the streets and were drawn to the music of the Buzzcatz. Terry and I spotted Carol Stein, a wonderful pianist, song writer and composer. She grabbed a table and I sat down to sketch. While I worked, Terry decided to shop and explore the arts and crafts tents. Carol and I ordered margaritas. Carol said, “These people don’t realize the world class caliber of musical talent they are listening to!” I had seen the guitarist on the left, Bobby Koeble, at a Rollins College Faculty showcase concert and he amazed me. The classic jazz, motown and rat pack era music kept the audience swaying. Several couples started to swing dance while children ran in circles on a patch of lawn. Behind the band people relaxed in the grass looking out over Lake Baldwin.

An Evening of Eligance

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Lago is a beautiful restaurant on the shore of Lake Baldwin (4979 New Broad Street Baldwin Park). The Evening of Elegance promised a complimentary cup of wine and piano entertainment featuring songs of Frank Sinatra. How could I resist? Funds raised at this event benefited Fertile Dreams, an organization that embraced hope for couples seeking paths to parenthood. When I arrived the bar was nearly empty except for a business man eating dinner. Slowly as I sketched people arrived and I let them populate the empty chairs in my sketch. One woman showed up with a young girl perhaps five years old. I overheard that this child was born thanks to In Vitro fertalization. The little girl was often the center of attention, often being told how cute and beautiful she was.

The organizer of the evening announced that the piano player and singer both had a cold and would not be able to perform. I was thankful since I was perched on a tall stool next to the piano which was probably there for the singer. I stopped rushing and relaxed into the sketch. This is the first sketch in a new sketchbook. I received the book from the “Sketchbook Project“. Thousands of artists around the country are filling these sketchbooks and then mailing them back to the Brooklyn Museum of art where they will form a permanent sketchbook library. The collection will also travel the country allowing people to check out sketchbooks to view. As I was finishing up my sketch, the little girl waved at me and said, “Good bye.” I smiled and repeated, “Good bye” in a sing song voice. That was the longest conversation I had that night.

Global Peace Street Fair & Pet Parade

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I went down to Baldwin Park to see the Global Peace Street Fair and Pet Parade. The event was sponsored by the Global Peace Film Festival which ran from September 22 to September 27th. There were a large number of tents set up down Broad Street featuring art, wholistic foods, animal rescue and semianrs on how to be a catalyst for change. I walked up and down past the booths twice before I decided I had to sketch the Greyhounds who wore bright yellow vests that said: Donation Dog. A clear pocket on the vest held dollar bills that guests had donated to the cause. It was hot and the dogs tongue was constantly panting to try and cool down.
A fellow named Rick introduced himself to me and he has been reading this blog for some time. I am always surprised when people recognize me. I am so pleased to meet people who are actually following these random thoughts and sketch outings.
The pet parade strutted up and down this small stretch of Broad Street first up the far side of the sidewalk and than up and around behind me back to the starting point. Women dressed like belly dancers paraded along with the dogs and owners. The people of Baldwin park certainly love their pets. If only people could openly love one another as much as they love their pets. Peace and love, I am out.

Global Peace Film Festival

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I went to Baldwin Park to see a free outdoor screening of “Playing for Change” at the Global Peace Film Festival. As usual I arrived a bit early and I walked around the main drag of Baldwin Park to enjoy the night life. I like the fact that many shops are open to the street so you can watch people doing martial arts dancing or taking a dance aerobics class. What great sketching opportunities! I got myself a drink, found the outdoor screen and waited for the crowd to arrive. When the film started I was surprised that only 2 or 3 people were sitting on the grass lawn in front of the screen to watch. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that Americans would not find a film about peace worth watching. To take in the scene I decided to sit across the street leaning up against the corner of a Subway’s shop. This was the best place to watch the few people that stopped on the sidewalk to watch. Metal post barricades jutted up to help keep terrorists from slamming a truck into the small park, disrupting the screening. A woman was canvasing passers by trying to get them to sign a petition.
I let the film music wash over me as I worked. My attention was often on details of my surroundings so I only watched the film in small bursts. A female singer from Tel Aviv Isreal always caught my ear and made me look up. Toward the end of the film a story was told that hit me like a wall of bricks. One of the performers in the documentary passed away after the film was shot and his grieving wife was busy packing his belongings in boxes, so she could try to move on with her life after his death. One day by mistake she pressed the wrong button on her TV remote control and a DVD started playing that showed her husband playing with musicians from around the world for this film. These musicians had never met before but they stood united in the belief that music could help bring peace to the world. She saw her husband happy and joyous doing what he loved. He was part of something greater than himself. Rather than remembering him sick in bed, she now rejoiced in the memory of him playing music. The next song played, and had me sitting on the street corner with a sketchbook in my lap emotionally overwrought. “One love, One heart, lets get together and feel alright.” I rubbed my tired eyes and oil from my skin caused them to burn. I wiped away the tears with my sleeve. I tried to open them again to continue painting but they still burned. I sat quietly on the street corner with my eyes closes and waited for peace of mind. When I opened them again the end credits were rolling.
The film ended with a quote from the Dali Lama:
“Never give up; No matter what is going on, Never give up.
Develop the heart; Too much energy in your country Is spent developing the mind instead of the heart. Develop the heart. Be compassionate; Not just with your friends, But with everyone. Be compassionate. Work for peace; In your heart, And in the world. Work for peace. And I say again, Never give up. No matter what is going on around you, Never give up. ”