On February 19th, I went to the Milk District’s Spacebar,( 2428 E. Robinson Street, Orlando), to sketch an arcade game tournament. The grand prize would be a $25 bar tab.
The event started at 10 p.m.I had never been to Spacebar before. The bar was super crowded when I entered. One wall had vintage arcade games like Ms. Pac Man and pinball machines. The Marvel and Capcom machines I believe were first person fighters although it was hard to see the screens from my vantage point.
Since there were no seats available with a good view, I sat on my artist stool next to the door. The proprietor asked me what I was up to. I explained about the blog since he might have been thinking I was some weird homeless guy who brings his own seat into bars. I asked for a light fruity beer and he suggested a German beer called Wittekerke. It was good. I sipped it slow as I sketched.
It was hard to tell exactly when the tournament began since there were always people playing. Artist, Chris Tobar stopped by to say hello. He has work scattered all around town in a show he calls “The Adventures of my Dexterous Shadow” and he is having a scavenger hunt where art patrons have to take pictures of each piece to prove they saw it. The winner would get a free print.
The crowd had thinned a bit by the time the tournament began at 10p.m. In the end Paul Andrade won the grand prize. As I was packing up, the proprietor and his lovely bar maid stopped over to see the sketch. He hadn’t expected to see color. When I asked how much I owed for the beer, he said it was on the house. Whoo hooo! We have a winner!