#txtshow

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As part of Melbourne Fringe, Brian Feldman performed #txtshow (on the internet) via Zoom. He live streamed the event from Washington D.C.

The show was described online as:  “This completely immersive multiscreen performance features a mysterious character called txt (pronounced “text”) who recites a script written anonymously in real-time by a live audience (on the internet).”

“As the content is based entirely upon what audience members write in anonymity, this limited capacity show may contain mature themes, profane language, and explicit sexual content. Happening on Zoom, audience members must keep their camera and microphone on the entire show.”

I have sketched live TXT shows many times in the past when Brian performed in Orlando. It was a nice change to see the audience reactions by seeing them on the computer screen.

It was late here in Orlando when the performance began, so I had the bright idea of enjoying the show from the hot tub. I hadn’t considered the logistics of having to do a watercolor sketch while in the tub. I sank down mid chest and had to raise my elbows to try and keep the sketch pad above the water. Another thing I hadn’t considered was that the lights might not be on while I sketched. I worked with the ambient glow from the computer screen and balanced the sketchbook on the edge of the hot tub. Another thing I hadn’t thought about is that the moderator wanted us to keep our camera on. The problem was be were not wearing bathing suits. Modesty forced us to keep the camera off for part of the performance but then we went ahead and turned it on. Since the lights were off, it didn’t matter.  The flesh tones didn’t appear in the darkness.

Pam started typing a complex text for Brian to perform and in her haste, she dropped her phone in the hot tub. She pulled it out immediately and dried it off with a towel but the damage had been done. She turned it off and ran to the kitchen to put it in a container of rice. She explained that turning it on with water inside might short circuit it. She did sent off some more texts via computer as the show went on. She had Brian do some physical performances like pretending he was stuck to the back wall of his set.

His set was surprisingly stark. I love sketching from Zoom since people don’t usually think of the camera angles and they often have the camera pointing up a the ceiling. This creates some fun sketches of people in their homes from strange angles. Brian must have hung a pure white sheet behind him because his dark black suite stood out from a pure white backdrop.  One woman was laughing with delight the whole show. We scrolled to her several times to watch her laugh. Another woman frowned the entire show, she never seemed amused.  This made for a fun performance. Since I was sketching live, I discovered I couldn’t spend much time sketching each audience member since Pam was enjoying scrolling through the faces to watch reactions a swell. As  in a live performance people on occasion remarked about each other, like when someone complimented one audience members hat.  TXT made such a seamless adaptation to the new technology offered by Zoom. This was a fun night with absolute social distancing.

The next day several buttons stopped working on Pam’s phone, but over time the features returned and her phone made a full recovery from its dunk in the tub.

Beach Day

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The day before Thanksgiving, Pam and I decided we wanted to get away for a beach day with the dogs. Pam researched and found  a beach near Melbourne that allows dogs. The drive to the beach as fairly uneventful though Donkey kept blocking my view out the back window.

The beach had its own parking lot long with a bathroom and the lot was almost full with just a few parking spots left. Rather than carry the umbrella and towels out we decided to walk out to the beach with the dogs thinking we might have to turn around if it was too crowded.

We both wore masks the entire time and discovered that no one else on the beach wore masks. The beach was crowded but we decided to try and find an isolated spot. My comfort level included at least 30 feet of space or 5 times my height removed from others. That amount of space was hard to find. A sign staked out the limits for the dog beach and all said, maybe 100 yards were allowed for dogs. It was also high tide which meant people and dogs were crushed together. More than half the people on the beach also didn’t have dogs which was frustrating because they could spread out to the vast stretched of beach that were deserted on either side of this crowded mess.

The breeze was coming off the ocean so my other thought is that we should find a spot with no one camped out directly in front of us. We found one spot back by the dunes that was properly isolated. As I held the dogs, Pam started setting up the umbrella. As she was doing that a woman with her dog plopped down a few feet directly in front of us. Pam picked up stakes and we moved about 30 feet south to another spot.

We relaxed for a bit and then took the dogs out to the surf on their leashes. Our masks stayed on, we were no going to swim ourselves, we just let the dogs pay in the surf. Sprout was caught off guard by one wave, but swam back to shore like a pro. Donkey, a puppy, had never been to the beach and she had a blast. We played out in the surf twice. One lady lost her flip flop in the surf and we recovered it for her. On the way back to our umbrella that same lady lost her French Bull Dog and we had to catch it. All three dogs on leashed got tangled up. It would have been funny otherwise, but this lady was not wearing her mask. I worked hard to pull back from the chaos as dogs barked and tugged in all directions. When we got back to the umbrella two college girls had plopped down a few feet from us. We decided to call it a day rather than constantly having to pick up and move. The congested strip of beach kept getting more crowded.

We actually did spot one other responsible dog owner who wore a mask as she walked her pup. Several mask less children flew kites.

Pam’s Birthday

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For Pam’s Birthday we decided to head to Melbourne Florida to take a chance that a beach might not be too crowded. We both packed out face masks and a light picnic. There was a 40% chance of rain but that is the case pretty much every day in the summer. On the drive out we passed a tractor trailer semi that was engulfed inn flames. The cab of the truck had pulled away from the cargo trailer and it was billowing black smoke and flames. Pam claimed she saw the word magic on the side of the trailer so we thought it might be from the Magic basketball team.  I mused that it might be full of basketballs that were now fuel for the fire. There were no police n the scene when we drove by but as we made out way south on 95, fire trucks an ambulance and police rushed to the scene driving north.

We both agreed that if the beaches were too crowded we would turn around and head home. The first roadside parking lots for beaches were more crowded that we had ever seen them. The lots were full and cars were parking on the grass. Between beaches cars were parked on the side of the road and people hiked to the beach trails. We refused to stop and kept driving south agreeing that Sebastian inlet would be as far south as we would dare to drive. The further south you go the closer you get to the Miami plague.

Sebastian Inlet State Park was closed because it was at capacity. We saw the Inlet beach when we drove over a bridge and people were social distanced on the beach. Clearly park staff kept it that way. Pam noticed one small parking spot which wasn’t super crowded and we decided to stop. We agreed to walk out on the boardwalk and if the beach was crowded we would leave. We wore our masks just in case we passes people on the walk out to the beach.

The beach was really deserted. A few people were fishing. We found a spot about 50 yards between groups of fishers and set up out umbrella and towels. The water was a gorgeous aqua greenish blue, almost Mediterranean. Masks came off and we headed out into the surf. There was a steep drop of right off shore but the water felt glorious. Pam stayed out much longer than me. I did a quick sketch and then we both napped on out towels, Pam in the sun and me in the shade of the umbrella. The whole time no one approached within 50 yards of us. No one caught a fish all afternoon.  A sea turtle wallowed out in the waves, perhaps thinking of coming ashore but instead it swam back out. Sea turtles are thriving because of the Covid-19 pandemic, because there are fewer humans to disturb them. When it was time to pack up and leave, our face masks went back on for the trek back to the car. It was a glorious relaxing day. I have been focusing on the worst of the pandemic for months and it felt good to drift off to sleep listening to the waves and feeling the sea mist on my skin.

Remeniscing about senior year at Melbourne’s Lauriston Girl’s School.

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At Terry’s high school reunion for Lauriston Girl’s School in Melbourne, she met Josie Browne who offered us a chance to stay in her Lourne, Australia beach house. The house was designed by an architect for himself and it has unique panoramic windows that give the sleek modern interior a feeling of being open to the environment. Josie was incredibly open and sincere, we both liked her immediately. Apparently her husband is her polar opposite, being loud and always seeking to close the next big deal. The family dog is an incredibly intelligent sheep herding dog. His greatest joy in life is retrieving a tennis ball that Josie tosses down the beach using a plastic sling. The house isn’t right on the beach but up a steep hill. The second floor balcony allows a sweeping view of the ocean over the neighboring roofs.

Josie’s daughter was back home and working long shifts at the restaurant in a hotel at the bottom of the hill. Her love is animal husbandry and someday she may fulfill her dream of living on a farm with plenty of horses. As Terry and Josie talked about Lauriston, a Sydney horse race was on the telly. Horse racing is huge in Australia. It became a national past time right after the gold rush and money from the races helped build the city infrastructure.

At the restaurant at the bottom of the hill there was outdoor seating. Signs of the railing around the dining area said, “Don’t Feed the Cockatoos”. The entire trip Terry had been looking for cockatoos because she missed our pet cockatoo named Zorro. As we ate dinner, cockatoos landed on the railing to watch us eat. If you turned your back for a moment they would swoop down and grab some of your food. At a trash can by the beach, cockatoos had pried the lid off and were rummaging in the garbage. I put some of the trash back and scolded a cockatoo as if I were talking to Zorro.  A few minutes later, trash was once again being thrown to the ground. Come to think of it, Zorro never obeys either. The cockatoos also chew and destroy any wooden surfaces on buildings. To say the least, cockatoos are considered a pest in Lourne.

Flying to Ayers Rock, Australia.

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Ayers Rock is located far north of Melbourne in the midst of Australia‘s vast “outback” or desert. Flying within Australia is incredibly easy. There is no customs and no security check points. Australians have the innocence of not feeling that they are a target for terrorist attacks and thus there are no full body scans, no removing your shoes and belt. You just board your plane and enjoy the flight. There was a short delay. I joked with Terry as we boarded that they might have to hold the plane together with Duck Tape. Amazingly my tray table was Duck Taped to the seat in front of me. Scrawled on the Duck Tape with a sharpie, I was informed, “TRAY INOP DO NOT USE.” Flying over Australia is very different than flying over America. America is cut up into a definite grid with farms and cities sprawling  out in a checker board pattern. In Australia there was only an occasional road stretching off into the infinite distance. The entire country outside of the coastline seemed to be an endless expanse of rusty desert.

When the plane approached Ayers rock, it was the only landmark we had seen the whole flight. The size was hard to distinguish since it was unclear how high the plane was flying. The airport was a bit larger than a shed and the heat assaulted us when we walked off the plane onto the tarmac and then inside.  The only features inside the airport were the luggage claim area and a car rental counter. We rented a car so we could explore the area a bit. About a quarter of a mile from the airport was the only civilization in the area, the huge Ayers Rock Resort. We stayed at Sails in the Desert which was a very environmental friendly resort. Solar panels supplied the power and water was conserved. The bright yellow buildings glowed against the blood red desert. The central resort area seemed like an unlikely oasis with its pool and palm trees.

I ordered some room service and relaxed while Terry explored the resort. Flies are abundant in the outback. The best investment Terry made was in two nets that fit over our hats. I felt like a geek at first but without that net, I never could have sketched because flies know how to bug people by flying in their eyes and buzzing in their ears. Within a minute it is maddening. The next day we would head to the Rock.

CERES in East Brunswick Australia proves that living a sustainable lifestyle makes sence.

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One of Terry’s high school friends asked us to take one of Melbourne’s trolly’s out of the city to it’s terminus. There she met us at the station. She suggested we go for a walk and get some lunch. Along the way, we met a man who was busy picking berries from a tree. He looked a bit like a hippy and invited us to try a couple of berries for ourselves.

Our destination was CERES (Cnr Roberts and Stewart Streets, Brunswick East, 3057) which is a not for profit educational organization located on 4 hectares of rehabilitated landfill in East Brunswick, Melbourne. It used to be a quarry and it was purchased and turned into a community gardening project. Terry’s friend has been on a waiting list for years to get a plot to tend. CERES was absolutely amazing. There was a gardening shop, cafe and an open market with fresh vegetables and vintage clothing. Children played in the dirt lanes and chickens scurried across our path. This seemed like the Eden that we had lost. What a shame that Orlando doesn’t have a similar large community project.

We stopped for a coffee and a muffin at the cafe.  Oscar Jimenez was entertaining the crowd on guitar. I did a tiny sketch to be sure I was done quickly. Everywhere I looked in CERES I wanted to sketch. There was a huge community bike shop which had a geodesic dome made entirely of bicycle wheels. Wind turbines and solar panels provided energy making the community self contained. Water barrels conserved water for the gardens. CERES is deeply committed to a reduction in resource use. Technology and efficiency are drivers for this reduction. They match technology with education programs for both adults and school
children to encourage widespread behaviour change leading to large
reductions in consumption. Some of their demonstrations, such as the Environmentally Sustainable
Design principles embodied in the buildings are widely applicable. Other
demonstrations are experimental, part of their aim to support cutting
edge initiatives. The electric vehicle conversion program, aquaponics
and biogas plant belong in this category.  All CERES Green Technology projects are designed
to be working demonstrations or on going research projects, and can be
viewed on site, or during guided tours. In America we seem to waste everything but Australians conserve and optimize their resources.

I was sorry we had to leave.  Terry’s friend showed us her apartment which also had solar panels. When she conserves energy and only uses solar, she is paid by the energy company because her energy feeds the grid. We all decided to head back to Melbourne to go to The National Gallery of Victoria. Fashion designer, Jean Paul Gaultier was having a show and Terry was excited to see his contour dresses on display. We drove an energy efficient Prius back to the city.

Federation Square in Melbourne Australia is party central.

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In the morning, Terry and I hopped on the free trolly that circles Melbourne Australia‘s central business district. This rectangular grid of real estate stretched 10 blocks South West to Port Phillip Bay and four blocks North and South. It is offset from the rest of Melbourne grid of streets at a forty five degree angle. The trolly circled the business district which made it convenient to explore the city with ease. A bridge crossed the Yarra River to the South and we walked through the botanical gardens and parks. Terry had a memory of being pushed into a lake in the botanical gardens and we tried to find the site of the crime. Finding the exact spot was difficult considering it had happened so long ago when Terry was a high school senior.

As we walked back at the end of the day, we entered Federation Square. Across from the square is the Historic Melbourne Station which is always full of hectic travelers. By the time the sketch was done, he was gone. I spotted a young woman sitting on the ledge of her hotel room window three stories up sketching the station. That must have been a great vantage point for taking in the architecture. Terry had to get dressed for her reunion so she rushed back to the Windsor Hotel and I stayed behind to sketch. A Bollywood film was being shown on a big screen in the square. People sat all around Federation Square watching the film. Two star crossed lovers were working together as wedding planners. They worked together to plan a huge opulent wedding  and in the mad rush of preparations they began to realize that they should always be together. Bright yellow and crimson gowns sparkled and flowers bloomed on every table. In the end the boy took the girls hand and they danced in a glistening choreographed dance scene. Soon everyone was dancing with them in unison. Destiny had been fulfilled.

In the square, I sketched the only aboriginal man I had seen on our trip. He sat on a stone retaining wall and once in a while he would talk to passer’s by. I wondered what Dream Time tales he might be telling people. Workers were busy setting up barricades in the square. I asked one worker what they were setting up for. The next day the Square would be home for Diwali, the Indian Festival of Light. This Hindu festival is celebrated in autumn every year. The festival spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness. Terry and I returned the next day. Food trucks offered an endless variety of sweet savory Indian dishes. The scents were intoxicating. The crowd was so dense that we had to hold hands to keep from being separated. A short walk down the Yarra River there was an Oktoberfest Festival. Women dressed in Tyrolean dresses and men wore Liederhosen. All the German beer vendors were at the top of a large grass hill. One couple in costume rolled down the hill together. These two festivals intermingled in the middle since they were both so large. Busty Tyrolean dresses pressed their way through the crowd of sparkling Indian Saris and Anarkalis. As the sun set large canisters burst over the crowd sending colorful confetti everywhere. A gust of wind lifted the confetti and sent much of it towards the train station. I’ve never experienced a festival so large and so uplifting. Melbourne offers endless possibilities for sketching events. Federation Square is party central.

Melbourne Australia is alive with culture.

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From Sydney, Terry and I flew to Melbourne Australia. Even the taxi ride from the airport to the Windsor Hotel was exciting. Melbourne has to be the most modern city I have ever visited. I craned my neck looking out the taxi window to see modern skyscrapers that were vibrant works of art. One was covered with colored panels that must have functioned as shades for the glass structure beneath. the panels created yellow, lime green and Orange waves. Just driving through the city you could feel the way art influenced the public spaces. I was told that there are more events in Melbourne than there are days in the year. There was opulence and excess everywhere with changes clearly still under way.

The Windsor Hotel built in 1883, was right across the street from the historic House of Parliament (no, not the Parliament House). A historic trolley station was right in front of the hotel. The entire trolley car had been painted by a local artist thanks to a city commission. Both the Parliament and the Windsor were architectural gems, build from gold rush money at the turn of the century. The Windsor is notable for being Australia’s only surviving grand 19th century city hotel and only official “grand” Victorian era hotel. The Hotel Windsor has a 5-star rating and is considered one of the grandest hotels in Melbourne. It is renowned for it’s long list of dignitaries and celebrities who have stayed there over the years including the Duke and Dutchess of York, Margaret Thatcher, Meryl Streep,  Anthony Hopkins, Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn, Basil Rathbone, Lauren Bacall, and Douglas Fairbanks, I didn’t see any of them walking the halls.

After a full day of travel, I decided to just sketch our hotel room before getting some sleep. Terry checked her social media, but my phone remained off for the duration of the trip. My tablet that I sketched on, also doubled as a way to check e-mails where the hotels had Wi-Fi. So I wasn’t completely “off grid”. There were several Theatres just a block from the Hotel. Her Majesty’s Theatre built in 1886, was performing Les Miserables, and The Princess Theatre was presenting the hit musical Once about a song writer and his muse. The smash hit new musical (based on the movie of the same name) stormed
the Tony Awards in 2012 taking home eight, including Best Actor, Best
Book and Best Musical. I hadn’t seen this show before so I was thinking of going alone on the night of Terry’s reunion, since I wasn’t invited to that. Even sketching the theatre’s opulent exterior at night would have made for a great sketch. I was excited to dive in and start sketching this cities rich cultural scene.

A beach nap on the drive back to Sydney Australia.

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From Eden, Terry and I had a seven hour drive back to Sydney Australia. Our ultimate destination after a flight was Melboune where Terry was going to a reunion. Her senior year in high school, Terry was an exchange student and she spent the year in Melbourne going to Lauriston Girls School. Half way up the coast, we stopped at Malua Bay. We ordered lunch and ate it on the beach. I had a fish and chips. A couple sat contemplating the waves.  Terry took a nap while I sketched. Gorgeous yellow flowers bloomed all along the dune’s edge. This is what a vacation should be like with some rest and relaxation.

The nap was short lived however because we had many hours to go on our drive back to Sydney. Eden is more than half way down the coast towards Melbourne, so it would have made more sense to drive south to Melbourne. But car rental rates skyrocket if you drop a car off at a city other than the one you picked it up in. Apparently a plane flight was cheaper than the increase in the rental rate. The drive back seemed so much longer than the drive down. There wasn’t and sense of discovery. We had already traveled these roads.

By the time we were approaching Sydney, the sun had set and the stress lever rose as the traffic got faster and more aggressive. I must say however that Australian drivers are much better than Florida drivers. I drove at the speed limit and was only passed once or twice during the seven hour drive. There are signs on all the highways that insist that divers get some rest to avoid becoming a fatality. By this point, Terry and I were both used to driving on the wrong side of the road. Once or twice we each turned into a wrong lane but that’s when a side seat driver’s warning is appreciated. I scrapped up the hub caps on the car pretty good because I like to park snug to the curb. When I had an SUV, the tires were so big that only rubber bumped the curb. But the little rental and my gas saving Prius have tiny tires with hubcaps that look like they came from a war zone. I only scrap the tires on the passenger side, so as the driver I never actually see the damage. Out of sight, out of mind.

Melbourne Civic Theatre Presented Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance”

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The set for Edward Albee’s  “A Delicate Balance” was a well appointed suburban house. The Melbourne Civic Theatre is small and intimate so as an audience member, you feel like you are almost a part of the scene. The stage is set up in a corner of the room, so there really isn’t any front and center seating. Agnes (Nellie Brannan) and Tobias (Terrance Girard) were in their living room talking and having drinks. Staging wise, there was always a cold distance between these two. The reason for the detached tension slowly became clear because Tobias had an affair and yet the couple stayed together. They also had to weather the loss of a son.

Right now however the couple has to face Agnes’ sister Claire (Susan Suomi) who has moved in. Susan presents herself as a new age hippy but her incessant drinking she chalks up to a willful resolve. Julia (Tracy Thompson) is the couples daughter, and she has just returned home after her fourth divorce. She is needy and spoiled often causing a scene when she doesn’t get her way.

The most surreal mixture to this perfect storm of characters are the neighbors, Edna (Tori Smith) and Harry (Michael Thompson) who were overwhelmed with an unexplainable sense of fear in their own home. They moved into Julia’s old room as they recover. Every scene involved multiple trips to the corner liquor cabinet to mix drinks. Tempers flair in the now crowded home. Tobias has to decide just how much he can give before going insane.

This was my first time at the Melbourne Civic Theatre and it was a wonderful surprise. Managing Artistic Director Peg Girard has created a safe haven for cutting edge theater. After the show, the actors lined up in the lobby to greet people as they left. I got a chance to quickly meet actress Nellie Brannan who had invited me out to see the show. Nellie is also an artist and she might take part in future sketch crawls. If you ever take a weekend get away to the beach, you should look up the Melbourne Civic Theatre and check out a show.