Juneteenth – Jazz Jam

Posted on June 20, 2010February 7, 2022 by Thor

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. In honor of this holiday the Grand Bohemian (325 South Orange Avenue) hosted a Jazz Session Jam. Yvonne Coleman, the coorfinator of the event said, “Our Jazz Session Jam has been going on every Monday for almost two years and was selected to be a part of the Juneteenth event. The founder was the late keyboardist Billy Hall along with co-founder, saxophonist Don Black. The purpose of starting this awesome night of music was to have a venue to bring musicians together so that people could enjoy great music. Most important, proceeds in the tip jar goes toward needy families, and charities. ”

I dressed up for the occasion and headed downtown. The jazz was to be flowing from 8 to 11 PM. I parked across from City Hall and walked down Orange Avenue to the Hotel, my dress shoes snapping crisply on the pavement. I entered the Bossendorfer piano lounge and asked where I could find the Jazz. I was led to the bar area. I didn’t hesitate to find a place up front from which I could sketch. There was an empty table but it was being reserved for Dick Batchelor, a notable former Congressman and businessman and community leader, and his friends. I decided to place my small tripod camping chair next to a thick pillar and leaned back to start sketching.

There was much shuffling as people moved chairs from one table to another and at times photographers would stand in front of me to get their shots of the performers. Patience and perseverance paid off. I get a visceral thrill out of drawing while listening to jazz. The beat and rhythms add a spontaneous flow to the line work. The whole time I drew I was tapping my feet and swinging my body as I quietly let go to fully experience the flow and surge of the music.

People kept coming over to compliment me on the sketch. I’m always surprised to be complimented on something the is only half finished. I was talking to a woman on my right when someone tapped me on the shoulder making me swing around to my left. As I looked up at her my body kept falling to the left. My left leg had fallen asleep and I crashed to the floor. The woman tried to catch me but I went down anyway. I then tried to stand up to get some circulation back in my leg but then I stumbled again and began hopping up and down on my one good leg until I could do a sort of shuffle step to the beat of the music. When I had stopped my contortions, the woman said she had been watching me work the whole time I was sketching and she was amazed. I thanked her and then sat down to finish what I had started. I tapped both feet to the music to be sure not to loose them again.

Sultana Fatima Ali showed up for the final set, dressed in a black sequin dress. She and Washington-based Jazz musician, Marcus Johnson, both sat tapping on their respective cell phones with the warm glows from the screens illuminating their faces. I assumed they were tweeting or updating their Facebook statuses. I was shocked and delighted when I found out she had been inspired by the art-themed environment to write, and she shared her musings with me. I believe through the visual elements and written word, an experience can truly be captured.

Cyclosa Confusa

Posted on May 27, 2010February 7, 2022 by Thor

Cyclosa Confusa starting Andrew Conner was certainly the strangest and most entertaining show I have seen at the Fringe so far. The show started with the theater in total darkness. A creature enters the theater which has mini LED flashlights on it’s head and hands. It is very tall judging from the lights it projects around the audience. Rushing around, I could hear its joints squeaking. It wondered up and down the isles searching. Mark Baratelli had just entered the theater and ended up sitting alone at a theater left seat.

The tall green creature was on stage and disappeared behind a small white curtain. He pulled out some binoculars and started scanning the audience. He looked right at Mark and lingered. He rushed back out into the audience where Mark was seated and began massaging Marks head. He sprinkled salt on Marks scalp and then put a hard hat on with a rubber hose sticking out of the top. He pulled out a mini hand held drill and pretended to drill into Marks head. The rubber hose acted as a straw with which he sucked marks brains with delight. Even in his embarrassment Mark had the forethought to hand off his camera so Sultana Ali could take some pictures.

Mark was pulled on stage and seated in a metal folding chair with his back to the audience. The Cyclosa, now in a lab coat started running a series of obtuse and humerus tests. If Mark answered correctly he got a happy face mark, if he answered incorrectly the sad face would be checked. Many of the questions were obvious like, 2 + 2 = _____. Then came a difficult question, 3 triangles a circle and another triangle = _____. Mark thought for a moment and said, “4 kisses and a cookie.” That deserved a huge smile face check and the audience roared.

The creature looked through the bag of a woman in the front row and he pulled out an address book. On stage he offered it to Mark as a reward. Mark looked over his shoulder and held up the book smiling with a page open full of contact information. Tisse Mallon took his photo. Mark kept getting a barge of gifts and romantic advances from the Cyclosa.

Mark and a girl picked from the audience then had to perform an operation on a human heart which the Cyclosa had extricated from his tail or butt. As they worked on the heart with their utensils the Cyclosa used a spray bottle to moisten the heart and plate. He was spritzing so much that the two were lost in a cloud of wet mist.

With a series of play cards the Cyclose quickly outlined his back story. His civilization in the center of the Earth had been lost because of a rouge lave flow. He had been spared since he was surfing the lava at the time. He wanted to take Mark to his home. The Cyclosa was in love and I think so was Mark.

In the end the Cyclose offered its heart by unzipping it’s fly and attaching what looked like a clothes line to Marks helmet. The heart was strung on the line with a carabiner and then the line was pulled sending the heart over to Marks face. When the Cyclose wrote on a large card, “Will you come with me?” The audience was shouting at Mark to accept the creatures loving advances. Smitten, Mark accepted.

So much fun! Don’t miss it!

Thursday, May 27th 7:10 PM

Friday, May 28th 11:05 PM

Dare to Stare

Posted on May 16, 2010February 7, 2022 by Thor

Brian Feldman wants to get to NYC by May 31st to sit across from Marina Abramovic in her performance piece called “The Artist is Present” at The Museum of Modern Art. To help raise funds for the trip, Brian is holding a 30 hour “Staring Conte st” at Frames Forever & Art Gallery (941 Orange Avenue Winter Park). Since I hope to go to New York City with Brian to sketch the main event, I wanted to see how his starting contest fundraiser was going. When I entered Katie Windish’s frame store, Mike Maples, a local comedian was sitting across from Brian. Katie said he had been sitting there for more than an hour. I decided to risk his getting up and I rushed my sketch to get him in place. It turns out I didn’t need to rush because he lasted almost another hour staring at Brian. He chuckled a few times but it seems that is allowed in this staring contest. As a matter of fact, there seem to be no rules and there is no way to loose. Afterward Mike said he chuckled every time Brian wiggled his ears.
Sultana Fatima Ali wandered in quickly but was late to her evening’s run up in Sanford, so she dashed off after dropping some money in the paint bucket. A family showed up and the little boy all of perhaps five years old, kept waving at Brian trying to get his attention. Katie kept trying to get a photo of the little boy waving but all the technical gadgets on the camera wouldn’t let her take the shot in time.
I decided I would sit across from Brian and draw. Since this was a starting contest however, I figured I couldn’t look at the page I was working on. I did what is called a blind contour drawing; something I haven’t done since college. There were minor distractions like the sounds of camera shudders, and I knew video footage was being shot which might end up on YouTube someday. This blind contour drawing took about 10 minutes to do. I found it hard to slow down and let the lines flow. I am so used to drawing fast to catch quick moment. I started by drawing Brian’s eyes. I lingered there as long as possible before exploring other features of his face. Nothing lines up exactly but I rather enjoy the penetrating spontaneity of the drawing.
Brian’s expression was consistently sober and serious. I found myself wondering what was running through his mind and it felt like an important moment to me. Much can be communicated by just looking into someone’s eyes.
Should you want to join this staring contest you still have 2 days to try and see how long you can last.
Brian will be staring Sunday May 16th from 10AM to 8PM, and Monday May 17th from 10Am to 8PM.
Donations are accepted by Pay Pal, or in the paint bucket in the store.

Triathlon

Posted on May 12, 2010February 7, 2022 by Thor

I got up at 4:30 AM to get down to the Woman’s Triathlon being held at the Disney Wilderness Lodge. Blogger, Sultana Fatima Ali told me about the event. I arrived at the magic kingdom and had to take a bus over to the Wilderness lodge. It was still dark out when I got off the bus. Bright theater lights with bugs swarming around them lit up the finish line area. I kept following the line of women who all were walking in the same direction. I found myself at a “marking area” where volunteers wrote the runners number on arms and then another number on racers legs. I considered doing a sketch here but the action was so frantic and varied that I decided to move on. I needed some anchor to help me calm down and start composing a scene. I started drawing near where all the bikes were stored. I was disappointing when I couldn’t enter the area where the bikes were stored. The first sketch of the crowds milling about as the sky grew lighter was fine but I decided not to post it. The funny thing is that I drew so many people holding water bottles by a strap and now a few days later I have the same water bottle sitting beside me as I type. This is an indication that this event was for me a life changing experience. Sultana spotted me sketching and leaned down to give me hug. As quickly as she appeared she disappeared into the crowd milling all around me. I noted her number which was 893.
After finishing my first sketch I walked down to the beach where the race was to start. A huge crowd of about 2000 women were gathered, all adjusting their swim caps and anxiously waiting. The women would go into the water in 12 different waves, or groups. Sultana was going to start with the 9th wave and she had a yellow cap. Each wave of women wore a different colored swim cap. The Star Spangled Banner played and the crowd fell silent. I decided I needed to finish this sketch before the start of the 9th wave. My line work became more fluid and experimental because of all the energy in the crowd. I worked fast and furious. When the 9th wave got onto the water, I was still applying water color washes to the sketch. I stopped and walked to the waters edge to see the start. I bumped into a spectator and we turned to each other. I suddenly realized it was Travis Blaze a former Disney Animator. He was watching his girlfriend, Sarah Purser, who was also going to start in the 9th wave. He laughed and said, “What are the chances?” While we waited, he said, “We should do a triathlon someday.” I said, “If your game, I’ll start training.” I was half joking. Travis explained that the numbers on the woman’s legs were their ages. From that moment on I was much more curious about the numbers written on legs. I went back to finish my sketch and then I would watch Sultana as she got out of the water. I finished fast and jogged over to the place where the contestants were exiting the water. I stood right next to the photographer. I waited until there were no longer any yellow caps. She was too fast, she must have gotten out of the water before I finished my sketch.
I next went to where the women dismounted their bikes. The crowd of spectators was pressed up against the barricade so I had to stand on my camping chair to look over their heads. Women kept falling off their bikes at this transition point since some wanted to keep riding past the sign and others stopped early. One woman got her foot caught in the pedals and she crashed right into the metal barricade in front of me. One woman rode in on a tiny child’s mountain bike. She explained to friends that she had gotten a flat and a little boy lent her his bike. Finally I saw Sultana cruising in on her bike. I shouted out her name and yelled waving my arms, but she was so focused on the transition that I don’t think she heard me.
When the Bike dismount sketch was finished I went to the finish line. I once again stood on my chair to look over the crowd. Runner 893 which is the number right after Sultana’s ran in at 9:55. Bubbles were billowing up from a bubble machine. Large groups of spectators would cheer as runners they knew ran for the finish line. It was exhilarating. I waited to see Sultana finish. This time I was too distracted to sketch. There was so much love and energy in the crowd of spectators. I just soaked it in.
The race was held on the day before Mother’s Day. A woman ran across the finish line with her 10 year old son sprinting beside her. Betty Vernon ran in with her 3 children and she held her youngest daughter in her arms. Family’s were cheering and supporting one another. This was the most amazing Mother Day celebration! I felt elated! When ever a runner would come in with a really strong sprint I had to cheer! I waited almost to the end when women were walking to the finish line. I realized that once again I had missed Sultana. She was just to fast to keep up with as a sketching spectator. I glanced over my shoulder as I got on the bus, 4 women strolled across the finish line arm in arm wearing Hawaiian leis and wide brim hats. The leis reminded me of my step mom, and I remembered that my mother, Elvira, had died on mothers day when I was 10 years old. I felt sad for a moment, but then joyful that life keeps striding on in wild celebration.

P.S. I spoke with Sultana after the event by phone. She finished with a time of 1:40:35 and was 27th in her division. She went into the race hoping to finish in less than 2 hours, so this was an undreamed of success and victory. She told me that when she was biking she saw a woman with one leg passing other racers on the course. This inspired her to push past her minor frustrations and pain. She said that the transition to running was the hardest part of the event. She had to talk to her legs convincing them that they had seen much worse while training. They came to an agreement and pushed on. Only 2 women passed her as she ran.
I am now jogging every day and I hope to experience a triathlon myself. If I experienced such a glorious adrenaline rush as a spectator, then it must be even more rewarding as a contestant. My favorite quote from the day’s events was, “The irony of commitment is it is deeply liberating” -Anne Morris. I am now committed to treating my body with more respect rather than just using it a a vehicle to get my hands to the next sketch location. Stride by stride I try to grow.