The Wedding of Rachel and Bruce McMillen.

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Rachel Leona Kapitan and Bruce Bowers McMillan were married on October 3rd of 2015 at the First United Methodist Church in downtown Orlando. Rachel’s son, Jackson Elliot Donald lead Terry down the isle and we were seated about four rows back. I considered moving closer to sketch but then decided to focus my attention on the wide expanse of the chapel. Weddings seem so rushed when you are trying to sketch them. the program asked guests to be truly present at the ceremony.  Everyone was respectfully requested that all cameras and phones remain unused during the ceremony. There was no mention of sketchbooks, either traditional, or digital, so I went to work documenting the fleeting moment. I’m only truly present when I’m sketching. I was still sketching as the photographer lined people up for the family group shots. Terry wanted to get to the reception, so I cut the sketch short. We bummed a ride with Karen Price and Naomi Butteffield to the reception.

The reception was at the Courtyard at Lake Lucerne which used to be part of Dr. Phillip House, a few blocks from the Center for the Performing Arts which bears his name. There was macaroni so I carbo loaded and got some soda. Bruce’s kids, Ryan and Katherine McMullin offered a toast and welcomed Rachel to the family with  warmth and humor. After a sumptuous fish dinner all the women hit the dance floor. Like me, Ryan wasn’t in the mood for dancing. Kim Buchheit introduced us and I learned that Ryan was an artist. He decided to learn sign language and that has become a full time job. Later in the evening, his sister Katherine came over and asked him to dance. He refused, so she turned to me and asked, “stranger will you dance with me?” Since I hadn’t danced with my wife all night, I didn’t think that would be a good idea. Instead I pressured Ryan to dance just once with his sister. The evening was almost over. He gave in to pier pressure and they danced. I clapped my approval, always the voyeur.

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.

Functionally Literate

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November 3rd was the inaugural episode of Functionally Literate held at Urban ReThink. The quarterly events aims to connect, entertain and enlighten Orlando’s growing community of writers, book club nerds and culturally curious. Each event will feature a visiting author along with thee talented local writers. The series is organized by Burrow Press and The Jack Kerouac Project. When Terry and I entered, a bit late, the place was packed. Large holiday lights were strung from the balcony creating a festive canopy over the audience. For some reason people were shy about sitting in the front row so we scored two front row seats.

Jared Silvia introduced the series and pointed out that Don Pomeroy‘s debut book, Wally, published by Burrow Press last month was available. Don Pomeroy thanked the book jacket illustrator Brian Phillips who had his work on display in the back of the room.  Summer Rodman and Rachel Kapitan then introduced Catlin O’Sullivan who is the resident novelist at the Kerouac House through the end of the month.  Catlin is working on a historical novel called The Kiss Off, involving a gangster on the lamb. She prefixed her reading by letting us know that a petite waitress had rented a room to the gangster. She went out with him one evening and things went from good to very bad. Upon returning home, she heard a raccoon in her attic. She went up to the attic with a hammer in her hand. What followed might upset any readers that despise cruelty to animals so I will end the scene there. If you want to read more, follow this link…

Susan Lilly read some wonderful poems. One was about a summer where she had to go to a camp where she was force fed sermons. A field trip to a rock concert exhilarated her to the point where she said, “If I had been a boy, I would have had a hard on.” She and her friend got in trouble for separating from the group. The other authors were John Henry Fleming and Don Peteroy. A reading versed in old English biblical phrasing told the story of Christ trying to win a basketball game to impress two girls. A large pad was flipped with the verses but the moderator unfortunately blocked my view. The audience would periodically respond with an Amen. It was funny but in time felt forced. Don’s story began to discuss how messy and gutturally funny human sexuality is when it is real. I will not even try to describe the slick, wet, messy, smelly and noisy details.

Afterwards, a large group of us went to The Wine Room a few blocks west of ReThink for some flat bread pizza and drinks. That morning the Kerouac Project had a garage sale that made over $1,400 which will keep the Artist residence running through the end of the year. There was plenty of laughter and barbed conversation to end the night.

Fashion Funds the Cure

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Terry asked if I would like to sketch a fashion show at Saks Fifth Avenue in the Florida Mall. I approached Saks from inside the mall and found the gate had been pulled down and a sign put up announcing a private party. I had to backtrack a bit then walk outside to enter Saks from the parking lot. The women at the reception table searched for my name on the list and they couldn’t find it. I had been invited so I stubbornly told them to check again. They finally just let me in. There was food and drink but I wanted to get right to work. Most of the seats in the front rows had reserved signs on them. I fount a seat right next to where the models entered the runway. From my seat I could see the models backstage as they prepared.

The event was a fundraiser for the Pediatric Cancer Foundation. This organization launched a new clinical trial to treat 18 children with relapsed Acute Limphoblastic Leukemia or ALL as it is commonly called. Each child’s treatment would cost $13,000. My father had died from Leukemia shortly before I moved to Orlando so I know first hand how this disease can ravage and deplete a family member.

Eight year old Gina Marie Incandela started things off by singing “Baby you’re a Firework” by Katy Perry. She had sung the National Anthem at a Magic playoff game I recently attended. Her song began tentatively then when she marched down the runway with her hands raised the audience was hooked. I wasn’t ready for what followed. Angelys, an adorable young eight year old girl, made her way down the runway with her mom escorting her. Angelys along with all the other young models is battling Leukemia. The girls were smiling as they sported beautiful oufits down the runway. Several girls had lost strength in their legs and they still made it down the runway with adults escorts supporting them by the elbows. They exhibited strength and beauty.

The host, Brandi Williams would announce some enlightening snippet for each girl. One girls simple bio read, “I am so much more than my cancer.” I saw women across the runway dabbing their eyes and I struggled to keep my eyes clear so I could sketch. Terry had to leave since the scene made her sad. For one shining moment every one of these survivors were superstars. A young girl got to the end of the runway in front of the video cameras and she did an extra sassy hip move that bought a loud cheer from the audience.

Then came an auction. A woman won an amazing week long trip to Colorado for just $2,000. A trip to Paris France had me tempted to bid. When the auction was over, the area quickly cleared out. Melissa Kasper was nice enough to bring me a plate of food as I finished the sketch. The pork and mashed potatoes were amazing. I got up to get a second plate. I found Terry talking to Rachel Kapitan who was helping Ella Kapul at Chocolate Provocateur.When Terry went to hug Jessica Mariko of Drip Dance, a martini glass crashed to the floor. Never a dull moment. We laughed so we wouldn’t cry.

Foil Muse Receptor Caps

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The Silver Fern Writing Workshop held the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month is approaching its second anniversary. To help celebrate this milestone, Janna and Geoff Benge decided to mix it up and have some fun by having the authors create their own thinking caps, which they would then wear to tune in to their creative muse. My wife Terry planned to attend and I decided this was a sketch opportunity which could not be missed. When I arrived Janna started telling me that she had just gotten a text from a friend who was in Roswell and he wanted to know if she knew where to find the aliens. This was rather fortuitous, a sign.

Muse cap supplies were scattered about on the dining room table. There was plenty of tin foil, tin pie pans, buttons, rubber bands, straws, soda cup tops, tape and a glue gun. The first author to arrive, already had his tin foil cap made. It had two large handles and a large satellite disk. He explained that tin foil is usually used to deflect the forces of mind control. The disk however was a conduit for pure creative inspiration. Rachel Kapitan designed an elegant Victorian looking bonnet that resembled a peacock when it spread open, fan like, perched on her head. Karen Price used a pie plate cap with a central antenna with a disk and button to catch her signal. Another author used a simple foil cap with foil flames flowing out behind his head. He claimed the design was based on the classic mullet hair style. One author crafted a very accurate Mickey Mouse aluminum skull cap with two buttons that made it look eerily life like. I made some very simple viking horns for my baseball cap to assist in my sketching.

Soon everybody put on their caps and got down to the serious business of writing. The room grew quiet and the pencils, pens and keyboards clicked and scratched out the messages caught by the twitching antennae capturing inspiration from the ether. Twenty minutes flew by as I sketched furiously trying to capture the quirky moment.

Everyone was then asked to share their musings. As Rachel read her story, I became infatuated with the way the potted Mother in Law tongue plant flamed up beside her. I enjoyed Geoff’s story about an author’s dependence on his foil cap. He claimed the cap allowed him to go where no mind had gone before. He experienced such a high from the creativity generated by the cap, that he started wearing it to sleep and in the shower. It slowly became clear that this man’s addiction to creativity bordered on insanity.

Terry managed to press the wrong button on her computer and she lost everything she wrote. Several authors helped her search the hard drive with no luck. This is another advantage of analog over digital, things don’t just disappear. After everyone had read their stories, the serious business began of drinking Funky Llama White Wine and enjoying the conversations about art and literature in the internet age. The stories and laughter lasted late into the night. Rachel gave Terry pointers on how to incorporate more dialogue in her stories. As I was walking to my truck outside, I glanced back through a window and noticed the warmth of the light as the remaining authors talked around the dining room table. One author was on the front lawn using his cell phone, the foil cap still on his head.

A Sea of Green

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On Facebook, Doug Rhodehamel left a message saying he would be hanging green fish at Stardust Video and Coffee all afternoon. I immediately jumped in my truck and headed over. The show he was preparing for was called “Sea of Green.” When I got to Stardust, sure enough there was Doug high up on a ladder hanging green cardboard fish. Each fish is made from green corrugated cardboard with drink lids for eyes. Inside each lid was a green or blue disk which was painted with day glow paint. He had a small pile of fishes on a speaker and he would string each one with a fishing line and then climb back up the ladder to hand it from one of the steel beams overhead. It must have been back breaking work and I was there just seeing the first fish as they were hung. When he was finished, the entire room was filled with fish from floor to ceiling and wall to wall.

At the opening, Doug explained that he had gotten the idea from the Beetles song “Yellow Submarine“, where the lyrics mention swimming in a Sea of Green. The room was dark and the eyes glowed eerily in the darkness. The small fish can be bought for just $5. I know this because Rachel, a ceramics artist, lifted a fish up from inside her leather jacket. The fish eye glowed even through the paper bag it was enclosed in. She took the fish out of the bag and pointed to the reason she had bought it, the fish had a light spattering of day glow paint on its body. It was this imperfection that had caught her eye and sealed the deal.

Author Rachel Kapitan was there having just come from her reading at Neon Forest. She pointed out how she loved the purity of the color. I wanted to talk to Rachel about her writing and “Synthetic Fiction”, a literary style she seems to be spearheading. I never got the chance. Jessica Pawli pushed up and said hello to me. She asked if I was still without a computer and I had to relate the painful tale of living six days with no computer. It is odd that people know what is happening in my life thanks to Facebook. It certainly makes starting conversations in a crowded room so much easier. Stardust was packed. A band was setting up in the next room and every table was filled. In a crowded room I always get lost in the ambient noise of the space. I find it difficult to hear a person even when they are right in front of me. I tried lip reading. When the band started playing, I moved towards them considering a sketch. A fellow who looked like a native American Indian was playing a fiddle and the drums were pounding. It could have been my 5th sketch of the day, but I was tired and Terry was at home waiting for me. I went outside, sent her a text, and headed home. You have to go down to stardust some evening and see this amazing display yourself. You will be glad you did.