Infusion Tea

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I had an event on my calendar called Cafe Night Open Mic at Infusion Tea (1600 Edgewater Drive College Park, Florida.) I had been working on the Ivanhoe Park Brewery mural earlier in the day from noon to 2:30 pm, so I was sweaty and grimy from railroad dust. Regardless, I wanted to get a sketch done for the day, so I headed to Infusion with Pam to experience the Cafe Night Open Mic.

We ordered tea and sat, waiting for the event to unfold. There was no Cafe Night Open Mic. I kept sketching anyway. The ladies across from us had ordered a three tiered finger sandwich and tea platter. There was lots of lettuce on the top tier. It must have been a special occasion. They chatted and joked… when they were not lost in their phones. Behind them was the Arts Co-op with funky dishes, jewelry, and t-shirts. One blanket said, “Live by the sun, love by the moon.”

Parrot Adventures grants a girls wish.

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 About once a month, Parrot Adventures meets at Albert Park in College Park. This particular meeting was special because the Make a Wish Foundation was granting a young girls wish to be surrounded by parrots. It turned out to be a rainy day but that didn’t stop the birds and their owners from coming out. Everyone crowded under a small gazebo to stay out of the rain. I huddled under an umbrella sitting on a picnic table to get the sketch done. Some rain blew in, exploding the pigments already on the sketch.

Someone had made bird shaped cookies, and the little girl got to meet every single bird. I was afraid that Zorro, Terry and my Cockatoo, might bite the girl, but even he was on his best behavior.  Since it was raining, we all went across the street to Graffiti Junktion for lunch. The front patio was covered, so the girl continued to meet birds all through lunch. Terry and I like to take Zorro out once a month to help him be more sociable around other people. On a number of occasions, blood was spilled, but parrot owners are rather forgiving.

Mark Your Calendar! The next “Parrot Adventures” club event is scheduled for 11am to 2pm on December 14, 2014 at Albert Park. The address is 2400 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, FL.

Infusion Tea

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I often stop into Infusion Tea in College Park (1600 Edgewater Dr, Orlando, FL). I usually go to Soft Exposure to listen to poets and authors but this evening I just stopped in for a bite to eat. The food is delicious and it is always fun to try a new blend of tea. I get over whelmed when I order since there is a wall of teas behind the ordering counter. There is also a counter where you can order gelatos. Gelato is healthier than ice cream.  It uses more milk than cream, and less fat. Additionally, it usually uses fewer egg yolks, another source of fat in custard-based
ice creams. Ice cream is churned quickly introducing more than 50% of air into the mix. Gelato is churned much slower which makes it more dense. Gelato has a more direct flavor. It always reminds me of Rome.

Infusion has a 60’s retro feel with the yellow Formica tables and lime green chairs. Some people come to sit for hours, sipping tea and working on a laptop.  Outside a patio enclosure has been added that looks like it came out of a shagadelic Austin Powers movie. The Arts Co-op, a  chic gift boutique inside Infusion is also a great place to get unique local hand crafted items for the holidays. Now through the end of the year if you buy one item, you get 1/2 off on another item. Many of the items are perfect as old fashioned Christmas decorations.

College Park Jazz Fest

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On October 26th, Terry volunteered to help collect admissions fees and put wrist bands on patrons going to the College Park Jazz Fest. About five blocks of Edgewater Drive were blocked off and there were three stages for musicians. The street was crowded with people in their lawn chairs with picnics. For $200 entire tables were rented in the street. One area had couches and lounge chairs like someone had moved their entire living room into the street. One family had the ingenious idea of loading all their lawn chairs in a large kids wagon and then using the wagon as another seat when they were unpacked. They sat as a group on the entry to a bank.

The volunteers at this entry were all members of the Jack Kerouac Project.  The Kerouac House offers residencies to writers who are offered room and board so they can focus on their writing. Author, Caroline Walker, is the present resident author at the Kerouac House. She joined the volunteers at the entry. At one point we all wondered at a bright star in the southwest sky. It didn’t flicker much, so we debated about it being a planet. Caroline had an application on her phone that clearly showed planets and constellations when she held it up to the sky. With all the bright lights from the festival, most stars were hard to see, but with the cell phone the sky blazed bright and vivid. The mysterious point of light was Venus. Mark Your Calendar, Caroline Walker will be reading at Functionally Literate, on November 22nd at The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, Fl) starting at 6pm.

Some of the volunteers left to find some food from vendors on the street. They returned with exotic Brazilian Tacos that looked delicious. Terry and I then went to find these tacos but all I ended up finding was a huge corn dog and a Coke. Some guy in a lime green souped up car parked near our entry station and cranked up his music to drown out the live jazz, The huge tires had those hubcaps that keep spinning after the car has stopped. The doors had huge sub woofer speakers in them and they caused the street to vibrate. After a quick flurry of photos he was gone.

Story Hunting

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Mad About Words founder Mary Ann De Stefano invited me to sketch a workshop on October 26th by resident author Caroline Walker at the Kerouac House (1418 Clouser Avenue, Orlando FL). Caroline Walker is a writer, producer and amateur explorer originally from Rock Island, Illinois. She holds a BA from the University of Southern California and an MA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has hiked many miles of tunnels, mines, architectural time capsules, trails, not-yet-trails, roads, shorelines, cityscapes, caves, graveyards and abandoned buildings.

The invitation explained, “Writers explore uncharted territory every time we tell a story. We are the cartographers, archaeologists, anthropologists and private eyes of our own imaginations. The real world can be a powerful ally—if we know where to look for clues. This workshop encourages storytellers to excavate narratives through a connection to place. Using photographs and objects as prompts, participants will discover how to:

    Empower locations to serve as dynamic characters

    Employ everyday observation as an evocative research method

    Exploit objects and artifacts as unique narrative tools

    Experience a deeper connection to our surroundings”

This workshop was right up my alley. I’m out exploring everyday using a sketchbook to record the hunt.  Though Caroline was dressed in a fashionable black dress with a tight blue belt, she wore practical hiking boots instead of high heels. She asked the writers to focus on two things, Objects and Places. Places are secret keepers, clues to the story. She described in eloquent detail the unique place in Wisconsin where she grew up. It was spared from the glacial drifts millions of years ago which left it un-scarred. It is the one place where Paleozoic snails survive and it brings back vibrant childhood memories. She talked about the huge Live Oak in front of the Kerouac House which is surrounded by Resurrection ferns and all that implies. Some places instinctively make her light up with inspiration. For some people that place might be a beach, but she feels uncomfortable at the immense expanse of open ocean.   More than anything, she invited writers to discover what place lights them up, to access a childlike sense of newness.

Each writer said a little about themselves including a bit about a place that they call home. Caroline handed out photos she had taken of abandoned places and the authors had thirty seconds to write something based on what they saw. The results were surprising and sometimes profound. Caroline is a true listener, and endlessly curious, I suspect the writing session fueled her creative reserves as well. Her enthusiasm to explore and discover something new everyday was infectious and inspiring.

Mark Your Calendar, Caroline Walker will be reading at the Kerouac House (1418 Clouser Ave, Orlando, FL) on November 16th at 7pm. She will also be reading at Functionally Literate, on November 22nd at The Gallery at Avalon Island (39 S. Magnolia Avenue, Orlando, Fl) starting at 6pm.

Jazz at Taste

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Taste Restaurant (717 W. Smith Street in College Park) is where I go to sketch on a slow Monday if nothing else if going on around town. Musicians gather at the bar and around 8PM the Jazz begins. Who ever gets to the stage first starts off the set. Frank Walter was on trombone, Miguel Alvarodo was on Tenor Sax, Tom was on drums. The place was so packed that I couldn’t find a table with a view. Instead, I sat in the entryway to the restaurant.

The music flowed and swelled. sporadic and spontaneous solos ignited and then  the other musicians joined in when the moment felt right. Sets can extend forever or be over in a flash, so I tend to sketch frenetically to catch the moment before it is gone. Monday night Jazz is always a good time so it is always on my calendar as a fall back option.

Soft Exposure

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On February 27th, I went to Soft Exposure at Infusion Tea (1600 Edgewater Dr, Orlando, Florida).

Naomi Butterfield and Frankie Messina  hosted this monthly event that features the writing of local and visiting authors. Soft Exposure happens every 4th Wednesday. I ordered a delicious vanilla tea and a humus wrap and found a spot with a decent view of the podium. Terry arrives just before things got started, but she wasn’t feeling well so she relaxed on a sofa at the back of the room. Author Karen Price joined me at my table.

Janna Benge was the featured author. She and her husband Geoff run a monthly Silver Fern Writing Workshop out of their winter Park home. The couple hails from New Zealand. They became accidental authors and accidental immigrants to the United States. Janna has ghost written about 100 books; she and Geoff co-wrote two historical biography series which has 61 title, and three million copies in about 15 languages. She is now working on a fictionalized memoir of a Victorian murderess. She read an excerpt from that book. Written in the first person, the woman agonized over her need to confess what she had done. The murderess was based on true events that Janna researched and then fictionalized.

After Janna read, the mic was open for any author to share their work. There is something very rewarding going out and hearing fiction and poetry from local authors. Soft Exposure is Orlando’s kinder, gentler spoken word night. Much of that comes from Naomi’s quiet inspiring words and Frankie’s bear hug of artistic inclusiveness.

Patriot Garden

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I went to the home of Jennifer and Jason Helvenston in College Park on a small dead end road that stops at I-4. Walking through the suburban neighborhood, I saw many blue yard signs that promote “Patriot Gardens“. I was at City Hall the day before at a demonstration where people demanded the right to keep their vegetable gardens. The Helvenston’s grow dozens of vegetables organically in their front yard in Orlando. But in November, the city—which aspires to be the “Greenest City in America”, notified them that their harmless garden violates city code, and they have to tear it up and replace it with grass or face fines of $500 a day.

I looked up their home with a Google map street view and the photos showed a barren yard before the lush garden was planted. The garden is now bursting with an abundance of vegetables and herbs. Jennifer backed her car out of the driveway as I was sketching. She recognized me from the protest at City Hall and she explained that many of the citizens that went to the City Counsel Meeting got up and spoke eloquently for the right to grow food. She felt the meeting went well but the battle wasn’t yet won. City government is a slow moving beast upholding decades old landscaping codes drafted before homeowners recognized the advantages of using native plants, creating natural habitats for butterflies and birds and sustainable organic gardens that put food on the table.

Sketching, I was surprised by the deep trenches between rows of vegetables. I assumed this was extreme raised bed gardening. Jason came out and explained that the soil had developed plant parasitic nematodes, or round worms. They had dug the ditches extra deep to try and eliminate this garden pest. Next week the garden will be completely overturned and replanted, He plans to plant the rows in rainbow arcs radiating away from the home so that the rows will no longer be noticed from the street.

All the Helvenston’s want to do is use their property peacefully to grow their own food. Their front yard garden has become a battleground in a national debate.  Planting the garden changed the couples life because they now interact regularly with their neighbors. They spend most of their time in the garden stopping to talk to
all the people coming by, which they love.  Who stops to talk to someone
mowing a lawn? Having sketched the lush garden, I can say it is far more interesting than a lawn of grass. Americans spend an estimated $30 billion annually on lawn care with huge amounts of water and fertilizer wasted. If you have a sunny spot on your front lawn, consider planting your own Patriot Garden. Plant a seed, change the law.

As of September 2013, the couple has won the lawsuit and can keep their front yard garden.

Jack Kerouac Project Yard Sale

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Each year, the Jack Kerouac Project holds a yard sale to help bring new talented authors to the Kerouac House in College Park. Jack was living in this home with his mother when he found out his novel, On the Road, was being published. That novel shot him towards a fame he wasn’t prepared for. He had to borrow money for the bus ride to New York to sign the publishing deal.

Now, every few months, a new author goes to the Kerouac House for uninterrupted time to write.  I like to meet and sketch the authors when I can. They usually have a reading of the work in progress which is a great time to meet the authors. The Kerouac Project is a real grassroots group that does an amazing job supporting authors by covering room and board during each authors stay. More importantly, they offer time which is a rare commodity in this day and age.

Caitlin O’Sullivan has landed for this year’s fall selection. She is
currently working on The Kiss-Off, a historical novel about a small waitress in 1931.

A Taste of Jazz

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Every Monday starting around 9pm there is free jazz at Taste (717 W. Smith Street, College Park). When I arrived, the drum set was just starting to get assembled. I ordered a beer at the bar and started sketching the empty stage and the paintings on the walls. All the paintings were of celebrities. Who actually hangs a painting of Marilyn Monroe or Marilyn Manson above their couch? As more musicians arrived, the buzz began to build in the room. A tall African American man, named Zion, entered the room with a leopard skin cap and an open jacket with no shirt underneath. He was shouting and happy. He shouted, “I will be throwing money on the stage tonight!” He had been given a watch by his woman and he wanted the world to know. He showed me his watch and it was as big as a saucer covered in gold and silver.  The inner gears were exposed. He shouted out, “look how beautiful she is!” as he gestured to the woman in the doorway, and she smiled. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, he was gone.

I heard the drummer say that all The Jazz Professors from UCF were going to perform. Jeff Rupert, the program director was on tenor sax, Bobby Koelble was on the guitar, Per Danielsson on the keys, Richard Drexler played bass, and Marty Morell, the band leader, was on drums. Flying Horse Records put out a live recording from the UCF-Orlando Jazz Festival of this group, The Jazz Professors remained on the Jazz Week charts for 17 weeks, peaking at 19. The music began and my lines danced as I tapped my foot and swayed to the beat. These guys were great! I had stumbled upon an amazing performance. People were shouting and clapping in appreciation. Everyone was lost in the free flowing adventure of smooth improvisation. The air was electric. With my beer and sketch finished, I decided to leave after the first set. On the drive home, I realized I was hungry for another taste.