Jubal’s Kin

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Jubal’s Kin consists of the home grown talents of Eric Jaskowiak, Roger Amundsen and his sister Gailanne Amundsen. Roger and Gailanne harmonize beautifully. They were on tour in Alabama but returned to Orlando to perform after a reading by Deborah Reed at Urban ReThink. Deborah wrote a book about a Central Florida musician who floundered after her husband cheated on her. She lost her will to sing and sequestered herself away. Julie Norris’s baby girl, named Maya, danced to the sweet Appalachian folk music.

My favorite song was called “Everything is Free.”

Everything is free now,

That’s what they say.

Everything I ever done,

Gotta give it away.

Someone hit the big score.

They figured it out,

That were gonna do it anyway,

Even if it doesn’t pay.

Gailanne’s voice is absolutely beautiful and the harmony with her brothers voice reminded me of the simple sounds of early Simon and Garfunkel. Their sweet melancholy songs seeped straight into my soul. I had to buy their CD and it has been playing every time I drive to a new sketch location this week. They are a rare, young and talented group, and we are lucky they call Orlando home. After the book signing performance, Jubal’s Kin headed right back to Nashville Tennessee to continue their concert tour.

Town Hall Meeting

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Urban ReThink hosted a town hall meeting. I assumed based on the invite that the meeting would be about discussing ways to make Orlando more culturally vibrant. There was a good turn out. People do want to see a positive change. Patrick Green introduced new comers to the venue. Tisse Mellon ran the meeting. She wanted everyone to brainstorm on ways to help make events at Urban ReThink more successful. People were split up into groups where they would brainstorm ways to make Urban ReThink an important cultural hub.

There was a marketing group, promotions, archiving and pre-show entertainment. I have been sketching many events at Urban ReThink lately. I go right after work lets off at 5pm so I end up going somewhere else to grab dinner and to sketch. ReThink has a small cafe, but the place is frighteningly empty before an event begins. Since I was still working on my sketch when everyone broke up into groups, I found myself seated closest to the archiving committee. I listened in. They need a central place to store all the photos, videos and audio recorded at events. I chimed in and said I would administer an Urban ReThink blog if needed. There was discussion of creating a book for sale but I doubt ReThink has a budget to create self published books that would have a limited number of readers.

Urban ReThink has had some amazing programs that were poorly attended and mediocre programs that pulled in a huge crowd. It seems the word isn’t always getting out. Some of the points covered at this meeting should help the word spread that Urban ReThink is bringing a vibrant alternative cultural experience downtown.

Free Jazz, Improvisation

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The thing that I find fascinating about the Accidental Music Festival is that each evening is truly unique. I never know what to expect when I walk into Urban ReThink. This evening was unique to say the least. As sound technicians scurried and adjusted mics, I started blocking in my sketch. I was impressed by the drum set which was covered with decals. In itself it was a visual treat. Kris Gruda performed on guitar. He wrestled with the instrument contorting his body to the sounds produced. He experimented with how to create music. A glass was pressed against the frets, a drum stick banged against the strings. The water bottle at his feet became an instrument as he twisted it creating sharp plastic sounds. I loved when he used a kazoo and played it in a cup of water. That was music any dentist could appreciate.

Jill Burton performed vocals. I can’t say she was singing since there were no lyrics. Her vocal chords were just an instrument to create experimental sounds. At one point she sounded like a whale at another like an Indian princess speaking in tongues. Part of me wanted to laugh and yet some passages were quite operatic. Lord knows I don’t understand opera, yet it is considered art. Her throat howled like the wind, filling the empty room.

My favorite performance came at the end of the evening with Michael Welch on drums and Daniel Jordon on saxophone playing a close approximation of Jazz. Drum Talk was a solo performed by Michael and it sounded very much like a beat generation mantra. The sets were long and uncharted. Daniel introduced himself slyly saying, “It has been a long time since I’ve been the corniest cat at a gig.” When the song ended, he thanked Urban ReThink for, “bringing real musical expression to Orlando in what is otherwise a f*cking wasteland. This evening allowed the artists to perform something new rather than reenacting what happened in the past.”

ReThinking the City

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At Urban ReThink, several local activists and organizers were invited to give presentations about how they are helping reshape the city. Each was allowed to show 20 slides for 20 seconds each. John Rife spoke about organic food growers in Orlando. A few years ago there were just 12 organic growers in the organization, at the last meeting there were 150 people. They arranged to sell organic food boxes in Orlando and 400 have been sold to date. Their catch phrase is, “local is lovely”. They are helping bring sustainable food products to Central Florida. A public garden is being planned in an empty lot on the corner of Eola and Robinson. On November 19-20 John is hosting the first Harvest Festival in Winter Park. The two day event will focus on celebrating local food and the farmers, chefs, entrepreneurs and non-profits that bring that harvest of their fields to our plates.

After the local presentations, Dawn Silensky was Skyped in from Pittsburgh. She told us about the storefront project. Together with Jon Rubin, Dawn turned an abandoned store into a waffle shop and a mini talk show TV studio. The shop was between two night clubs and they wanted to attract the club kids as costumers. Locals that frequented the waffle shop were interviewed. Dawn is an artist and she said, “conversations are my process and people are my medium.” The sales of waffles keep the conversation alive. She feels that culture is a personal thing. An intercontinental dinner party was held where skype projected on a large screen was used to make it seem like Iranians were seated at the same table as the American diners.

A portion of the building seemed to go unused and it was converted into the Conflict Kitchen, which is a walk up restaurant where you order food from countries America is at war with. This walk up window is reinvented every six months featuring another countries cuisine. The food wrappers have commentary about the countries culture, helping start discussion and debate. Each meal is a cultural exchange. Dawn feels art needs to move outside the studio and out into the streets. Food helps facilitate that. Food is something comfortable, something everyone needs. The point that Dawn and all the presenters made clear is that we all can help bring culture home. When you have a vision, just go out and do it. Start small and let the idea grow. Don’t over think. Each of us can make a difference.

Contemporary Chamber Music

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The Accidental Music Festival hosted an evening of contemporary chamber music at Urban ReThink (625 E. Central Blvd). When I arrived, musicians were milling around and there was the usual mad rush to get everything in place and working by show time. Violinist Eric Smith introduced himself. He knew of my work since I had sketched a string quartet he played with in Winter Park last winter. He said someone shot video of the performance and there I was in the front row of some chairs set up in the street sketching away.

For the first piece Brandon Clinton played piano and Christopher Belt, the festival organizer, played guitar. I decided to sketch from halfway up a staircase. Each chamber music pieces was short and to the point. Eladio Sharron performed with Carrie Wiesinger on flute. Their piece elicited a standing ovation from the 30 or so attendees. On a trip to Germany, I discovered that a very distant relative, Cornelia Thorspecken, is a professional flute player in Wiesbadden. She gave me a CD and since then I’ve become infatuated with the pure sweet tone of the flute. Thad Anderson performed last doing a drum solo. He warned people sitting close that things were going to get loud. If people needed to shield their ears, he wasn’t going to be insulted. Bravely people stayed where they were. It was a stunning way to end the otherwise peaceful evening of music.

On the outer edge of each step of the staircase I was on, there were small candles in glass jars. I was careful to avoid them when I rooted around in by bag for art supplies. When the concert was over, an old man came down the steps cradling his empty dishes from the salad he ate during the concert. He had a cane and it dragged next to him as he walked down. The cane knocked over every candle on the way down. A sound technician followed him down, righting each candle as it tumbled. He turned to me and said, “Unbelievable.” Luckily they were not lit. It was hilarious simply because the guy had no clue about the havoc he was causing.

Accidental Music Rehearsal

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The Accidental Music festival held an open Rehearsal at Urban ReThink. I spoke to Christopher Belt the festival organizer, and he let me know the performers were being paid for their time. Juan Trigos composed and conducted “Ricercare VI” for guitar and chamber orchestra. There was no guitar player at the rehearsal. I recognized the flute player, Colleen Blagov, from the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. Benoit Glazer’s son sat up front playing violin.

I can’t tell you much about the flow or overall structure to the music. The percussionists clapping out the beat reminded me of a Spanish Flamenco dancer. When the drums joined in, I was reminded of a scene from the Planet of the Apes as humans were hunted. The rehearsal was very staccato with short bursts of music followed by many conductors notes. The piece will have its Florida premiere on September 11th at the Timucua White House (2000 S. Summerlin Ave) at 7pm. The acoustics in the White house are perfect. Benoit Glazer designed the space from the ground up to make the perfect performance space. As always the concert is free. Bring your own bottle of wine if you care to sip a drink during the show. Arrive early this is going to be a big one!

Accidental Music Festival

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The Accidental Music Festival will feature 10 nights of concerts, lectures and films celebrating creativity in music. The festival was started by Christopher Belt. He asked to use the space at Urban ReThink and it just happened that The Civic Minded Five, another music group had scheduled concerts the same week. He said to Patrick Green, “It’s like an accidental music festival.” The name stuck. On the second day of the festival, I stopped into Urban ReThink to see Jason Kahn and Bryan Eubanks perform.

I arrived sweaty after a full day of painting the Mennello Museum Mural. I waved to Pat Green in his office and headed straight to the bathroom. Opening the men’s room door, I was startled to see two young women. The woman directly in front of me had her shirt off, wearing a black satin bra. She shouted raising her hand up. Time slowed down. I responded, “Whoops, sorry!” as the door slammed shut. I sat on a small stack of chairs in the hall which shifted awkwardly under my weight. I waited for a while, then I decided they might need privacy, so I went to grab a beer.

The instruments were a huge tangle of wires. Jason sat behind mixing boards, coils, contact microphones, and a sound recorder that played back ambient sounds of the room. A synthesizer processed and modulated sounds, creating feedback loops. Bryan who built many of his instrument components, used guitar effects pedals, a master mixer to mix sources like radio frequencies, ambient room noise and sound clips he randomly collected over the years. He used Super glider,a computer program, to generate sound. All the sounds were generated live in real time.

Initially the sounds generated reminded me of the THX sound system audio played at the start of movies. Brian described their music as a collaborative structure with both players seeking a balance to fill it out. The music generated was unpredictable. Both musicians sought control but the form was complicated by movements or unexpected shifts. This would knock the musician out of the ring, out of control, as he adjusted. Lisa Bates shouted out, “Just like in life!” Jason agreed feeling their music corresponds to the vast barrage of information generated by social networks today. The music was completely intuitive with balance and disruption. It is not your typical acoustic sound. The sound generated inspired me to attack the drawing aggressively my hand moving in syncopation to the changing, unpredictable modulations.

Two young college girls inspected my sketch. One was an artist herself. She did a pencil sketch of Bryan during the performance and gave it to him. The artist seemed annoyed at me, but her friend was enthusiastic and affable. I told her about Urban Sketchers and said she should take a look at the sight. I wondered if these were the women I had interrupted in the bathroom. I couldn’t be sure. In shock, I forgot to look at her face. The Accidental Music Festival will continue through September 13th. Admission to all the events is free but donations are accepted.

IIyse Kusnetz Poetry Reading

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I stopped by Urban ReThink for an evening of poetry. I was greeted by friendly handshakes and hugs from many people who I had met thanks to the Kerouac House project. I had seen author Karen Price just the night before also at Urban ReThink. This place truly is becoming a lightning rod to the cultural pulse of this city. I picked up a “Pumpkin Head” beer from the freezer. What a delicious beer! I may just keep sketching events at Urban ReThink until their supply runs out. I’m thinking Pumpkin beer is seasonal but I just realized Halloween is only two months away! The supply is limitless for the next few months.

John Hughes was the first poet to get behind the microphone. I enjoyed the way he spoke about his brother. He claimed his brother is butt ugly yet girls always flocked to him. He couldn’t understand the phenomenon since he considered himself reasonably handsome. Lucky in love, unlucky in life the saying goes. Sure enough his brother had the worst luck growing up. He was glad to be near his brother since he would soak up all the bad luck in any room. When John read one poem which was written about his ex-wife, he mispronounced the first word saying “lick” instead of “lit”. A Kerouac House regular shouted, “Freudian slip!” John had to stop as he started laughing himself. He finally read the line of the poem, “lit the wick.” Every poet in the room burst into laughter as they re-wrote the line in their minds. It took me several seconds before I started laughing as well.

Ilyse Kusnetz explained that her collection of poems were all about bearing witness. I like the premise since I feel my role in sketching is to bear witness not just to the struggle of everyday life but also to the beauty in the mundane. Many of Ilyse’s poems were about WWII. Her uncle served in the war and being Jewish he was often called upon to translate. He witnessed the worst atrocities imaginable. One of her poems spoke of bodies piled high like cord wood and native Germans being directed to move the bodies they so long denied. Her father was to young to serve in the war but he did help on the docks. A huge crate being transferred to a ship slipped and everyone else let go of the guiding ropes except for her dad. She wrote a wonderful analogy about how he held tight just as he later did to keep his family together and secure.

The next day Terry was leaving me for ten days over Labor Day as she visited her sister in Washington State. Rather than mingle with all the writers after the reading, I immediately slipped out like a phantom. It was important to get home to Terry.

There Will Be Words

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There will be words featured local authors reading excerpts from prose they had written. The event happens on the second Tuesday of every month at Urban ReThink. When I arrived I spotted Darlyn and Brad Kuhn who had recently been married. I congratulated them and hope to attend a celebration in their honor at the end of the month. I then sat next to Leslie Silvia to talk visual art as the stage was set. Lesly did the cover and all the headers for the “Best of Orlando” issue of the Orlando Weekly. She executed the assignment using silhouetted paper cut outs.

When the authors were ready to read, I went upstairs for a birds eye view. Jana Waring was introduced as being the “Best Local Author” as voted by Orlando Weekly readers. She read a short story in which the protagonist didn’t like pets. She described manic and unpredictable pets from her childhood. With plenty of tongue in cheek humor, she indeed convinced me that owning pets is insane.

Jared Silvia read a hilarious piece about Lobster Fest. I laughed the whole time realizing I’m just as much of a misguided geek at heart. Darlyn Finch read a touching story about a present she had brought for her ill brother. Knowing he had recently lost the battle, often forgetting those who loved him before he died. Darlyn has a way of writing from the gut that I admire. Small collectible books called “chapbooks”, were hand bound of each of the author’s stories. The evenings host, J. Bradley, announced that we should buy them now before the authors died and the value of their words escalated. There is something very rewarding about being in a room of people sharing their stories. Events like this remind me that Orlando has a thriving literary community.

Carl Knickerbocker Film Screenings

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Urban ReThink hosted a screening of two Carl Knickerbocker animated puppet short films as well as “The Painting Lesson”, a live action film that is loosely based on Carl’s art and life. I really liked “The Painting Lesson.” In this film an artist who really looks like Carl was painting in a night club to make ends meet when he meets an alpha business woman who asks him for a painting lesson. One thing leads to another and they end up sleeping together. She has a dream about Carl’s blue and green dogs. The animated dogs circle each other sniffing butts. She is rude to him from that point on. They fight. He paints her pooch green and in the end she creates a huge angry mural on the street in front of his home. He realized this is the best painting she had ever done. She didn’t need lessons from him anymore. The media embraced her. I absolutely love this film. It is a shame it was never distributed.

“A Dog Goes from Here to There” was a short animated piece that Carl wrote and directed. His vibrant Urban Primitive paintings are bought to life to illustrate a whimsical poem written for children. Carl’s most recent film, “SP #2” is surreal and non-linear. He just recently finished the production and is now sending it out to film festivals.