Friday, December 31, 2010

London, 2008: A dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets


When you pay good money to be scared, this is the kind of place you hope to find. Here we are, in a deserted alley, on our way home from drinking Absinthe at The Ten Bells -- last stop on our Jack the Ripper's London tour. It was a fascinating night of true crime hosted by Donald Rumbelow, a guy who had literally written the book on the case. Rumbelow -- one of the all-time great author names :) -- claims to have been the studio-hired resource who briefed Johnny Depp on the case prior to the filming of From Hell. We met in the furtive shadows across from The Tower of London, and trod the cobblestone streets of Old London -- one square mile bounded by Roman stone and conflicting suburban police jurisdictions. Rumbelow wove a captivating tale, then opened his attache to conduct a little book sales business. I got the last copy! There are lots of folks offering Jack the Ripper tours and they steal each other's business like Gypsy Cab drivers. We were fortunate to get Rumbelow, and we were his last tour before taking a several week break for back surgery.

The good stuff:
Comfort food
Apple cinnamon oatmeal
eucalyptus
Niquel
Antibiotics
glad tidings
great joy
angels - of all stripes
DIY web design







Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Solstice


It came upon a midnight clear . . . actually it arrived around 1:30 a.m. -- a full lunar eclipse on the winter solstice. Now I'm not up on my druid lore, but that's got to be some kind of triple-witching hour. Local pagans celebrated with drum circles. And I thought of a couple of summers ago, when Darlyn, Meschelle and I were at Stonehenge on the eve of the summer solstice.

Regardless of your creed, there is something powerful about a solstice, especially the winter solstice, the longest night of the year -- standing astride the midnight meridian, staring up into the honest eye of the moon, you feel closer to God, and somehow empowered to ask him anything. This time, I didn't. I just tilted my head back and watched as the lid of the earth's shadow, dropped like an eyelid, until all that was left was a white tip and the moon eye became a buckeye. And then even that was gone, and the moon slept. A silent night, indeed.

I watched through the improbable December blossoms of my flowering peach tree, and whispered two words -- to God, and to Darlyn, whom I knew at that moment was at her home across town, bundled and sapping the heat from her cocoa, staring up at the same night sky, 25 miles away: "Thank you."

Peace to you all.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Pinocchio - the later years


Like many child stars, Pinocchio had a hard time adjusting to reality. As it turned out, being "real" was not a marketable job skill - not like, say, being a stringless puppet. Desperate, he took matters into his own hands, undergoing experimental surgery in Mexico to return to his natural state. The surgery worked, but by then the world's attention had turned to automatons. His life in splinters, he took to freebasing varnish. An autopsy, performed by a noted tree surgeon, placed his age at 37, although his rings showed signs of termites and the advanced dry rot of a much older tree. He was made into a pine box and buried in a private ceremony attended by a cricket, and several smoking donkeys in topcoats and short-pants.


The good stuff:

Pot luck at the Kerouac House
A good yarn
A nice sweater made from good yarn
Apples and peanut butter
Barnstorming hawks
Woodpeckers at the window
Pajama weekends
Community
Linear parks
Writer talk



Friday, December 17, 2010

Pinocchio -- artist's model


Another great sculpture by Cheryl Bogdanowitsch


 

The good stuff:
A warm day in winter
Rowers at dawn
Ferris wheels
Dancing shoes
Wind-up monkeys
Puppet boxing
Packages on the porch
Crisp, shiny apples
chimney smoke

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Faces off


This shot of fragments in Cheryl Bodganowitsch's woodpile would make a nice cover image for a poetry collection.

The good stuff:

Blue moons
Spaghetti and brocolli slaw
New office supplies (feels like new school supplies)
Poetry in motion
Infinity - and beyond
Questions without answers
The Three Musketeers 
Traffic circles
Crop circles
Turning in circles 

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Fellahin


More beautiful detail from the work of Cheryl Bogdanowitsch. This one reminded me of that famous National Geographic Cover, the one of the Afghani girl with the searing green eyes. This particular photo shoot was so rich with these powerful images. I think I'll keep posting them for awhile.

The good stuff:

The exhaustion of a day well-spent
Cold weather - nature's bug zapper
Woohoo! 30 degrees - no more lawn mowing this year
Getting pulled over for a burned out headlight - on my way to an auto parts store (no ticket)
Silk Soy Nog. Not the product itself, I just like saying it.
Sidewalk chalk
Vermillion
Chartreuse
Cinnamon candles
Spelunking for sweaters



Sunday, December 12, 2010

Blue Angel


I hope Cheryl Bogdanowitsch won't get mad. Her work is so inspiring, I played with it a little. Here's my collaborative interpretation of one of her pieces.

The good stuff:

Offsetting setbacks.
New Hope For Kids Christma Light Ride organizers and marshals (y'all rock! Thanks!)
Ray LaHood
Rails To Trails Conservancy
Living on the verge
40 degrees and sunny - mmm, brisk
Buffalo chicken quesadillas
Christmas parties
White elephant gift exchanges
fondue fu

Friday, December 10, 2010

Collaboration


No one but the poet knows, from this beginning, where she goes. To take, and make, from this, a poem. From artist's head, to poet's koan. One to another, heart to heart, a transformation, art to art. And in between, the muses meet. Two strangers passing on a street. Each burned upon the other's eye. Cross-pollination, by-and-by.

The good stuff:

Friends at the Enzian
Snickerdoodles
saying "snickerdoodle"
cheap sunglasses
margarita salt sombreros
moving bookcases
giant libraries
library giants
baby bats
local bands

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Wood-witsch


Darlyn had a surprise for me. "I want you to meet my artist," she said. "Bring your camera."

As one of the leading ladies in the Florida poetry scene, it is becoming increasingly common for Darlyn to be paired with an artist, or two, for collaborations guaranteed to amaze. We were on our way to the Orlando studio of Cheryl Bogdanowitsch, a sculptor known for her fantastic wood sprites and spirits carved from gnarled and knotted limbs she strips of bark and stacks like so much, well, cordwood, around her studio on Lake Formosa - a stone's throw away from the community center where Gram Parsons played with his band "Legends," and where bands like The Allman Brothers, Tom Petty, and the Outlaws, hit the small stage before making it to the big one -- a youth club so hot that older teens would get fake IDs so they could appear "young" enough to get in. But that's a story for another day -- one already written by local pop historian and WESH TV reporter Bob Kealing, for Orlando Magazine back in 2007.

The poets and artists in these collaborations have a quaint possessive way of referring to each other as "my poet" and "my artist." Darlyn had been to the studio at the beginning of the process, and was going to pick up a sculpture inspired by her poetry. Under the rules of engagement, she would have to study the piece, as Bogdanowitsch had studied her work, and write an original poem, inspired by the reflection. That poem, in turn, will be given to a painter, who will create something original inspired by Darlyn's ekphrastic phrases.

But Darlyn had an ulterior motive for inviting me along last night. "This place reminds me of the inside of your head - at least the way you've described it to me." She was not wrong. Over the next few days I'll be presenting some of the photographs I took inside Bogdanowitsch's wonderful studio.  

The good stuff:

The REAL Orlando
Circus train - just passing through.
Creamy Jif, from a spoon!
Getting by with a little help from my friends
Living in a state where our politicians actually spend time, and taxpayer money, debating whether a long-dead rockstar, who is buried in Paris, did, or didn't expose his hoo-ha at a concert 40 years ago, and whether he should be pardoned - really. How's that budget coming?





Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Green and groovin'


Boy have I been a bad little blogger. Went and filled up my dance card with paying gigs and now I've gone and missed a couple of days. To summarize: Sky, flower, frog, freak, cemetery. Ooh, aah, watercolor. In my defense, I have been busy. Look for a couple of stories in the January issue of Orlando Magazine. Just finished a cover for the International Accounts Payable Professionals and a white paper on Regional Water Strategy. Hit send on the water strategy white paper today. You know there's a trick to writing a water paper, right? Well, the trick is, it can't be dry. Badumpum! Ching! Thank you. I'll be here all week. Now see - it's that attitude right there that makes me think about skipping a day. But I'm bigger than that. I'll just sit here across from the Buddha Frog, and look for inner peace.

Japanese beer in American aluminum, brewed in Los Angeles
Spaghetti - with whole mushrooms and fresh basil. No spaghetti.
Clearance, Clarence
Roger, Roger
Leslie Nielsen - RIP
Mr. Natural
Kilroy
Banksy
Obey-Giant
Public graffiti walls




Sunday, December 5, 2010

Scribbler's Corner

Darlyn at work is a beautiful thing. ... Darlyn at work is a beautiful thing. I had the opportunity to see Darlyn in full-on frenetic work mode this weekend. She has agreed to do some part-time bookkeeping for me and was helping me get my office in order. Sixteen hours later, I had to unplug the computer to get her to stop. That's just the way she is. Whether she is writing, or working (for free) on behalf of the Central Florida writing community, she gives all she's got. I took this picture in October, at the AM 810 studio, where she was broadcasting her Scribbler's Corner radio show. (Second Saturday of every month at Noon(ish) during the second half of Yo Soy Latino - yes it's in English). Typical Darlyn -- edge of her chair, coiled and ready. She looks as if she's ready to spring into action. And, speaking of Scribbler's Corner . . . Next Saturday (Dec. 11) Darlyn will be interviewing me, and my colleague Diane Sears, owner of DiVerse Media, on how getting laid-off can be a blessing, and how you can earn six figures freelancing.


The Good Stuff:

Bluejay at my window
Warm, fuzzy socks
Hot ginger tea
Pom Pom's Teahouse and Sandwicheria
Chocolate Guiness cupcakes
Snowy nights and Christmas lights. Tinsel afternoons.
First Friday arts strolls
Orlando Shakespeare Theater
The Innocence Project
Scribbles

Friday, December 3, 2010

Bric-a-brat


Well, I swan. It's a Southern expression -- because it's not polite to "swear." I'm sure there's a great legend depicted by this figure, but it's not coming to mind.

The good stuff:

"Snow" falling softly on Market Street at Celebration
Florida winter - both days
Fireplaces - just because
Rock Band Freebird - family style!
Airing out the sweaters
The first seasonal whiff of a heater
Outdoor cafes with propane heaters
Cold, clear nights - so many stars!
Christmas lights
Holiday decorations



Thursday, December 2, 2010

I am the wall-rus


This particular gargoyle from the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona, is probably not what John Lennon had in mind when he sang "I am the walrus." -- Although, judging from the lyrics, I'm not sure he was thinking much of anything at the time. Still, it never hurts to Imagine. As the media machine cranks up to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Lennon's assasination next week, I wanted to post this as an off-the-wall tribute of my own.

The good stuff:

The Beatles catalog is now available on iTunes!!! Finally!
Strawberry fields
For the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Norwegian Wood
Blackbird
Yesterday
Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey
Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
A Day in the Life

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Dog House


A busy, but good, day yesterday. Had to escape to my watercolor happy place. This Key West cottage is, well, soooo Key West.

Pastel paint: Check.
Gingerbread: Check.
Dogs on roof: Check.
Mermaid figurehead on the attic vent: Check.

Homeowners association says: "two snaps up."

The good stuff:

Big lazy dogs
Blue lazy days
Cocktails served in a hollowed out pineapple
The tractor beams of Christmas
Snow (on tv)
Sun (on my face)
Formal flip flops
Moving vans in the neighborhood - moving in
Wayward pelicans
The smell of fresh bread.



Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Here comes the sun


Big, bright and happy - what's not to like. And I say . . . It's all right . . . which reminds me of a scene I witnessed at a redlight, taking my daughter to school the other day.

Sirocco

She enters as motion
At the corner of my eye
Left to right
In a solar arc
All elbows, knees, and jiggling excess
Bold as brass
Dark as bronze
Big as a Sousaphone

She takes to the streeet
As if it were a stage
In her own private parade
Dancing to beat the band
With a hyperbole of gesture
No doubt scripted for aerobic effect

She takes her time
Taking in the moment
When she reaches the refuge of the far corner
A car honks
And it looks, for a moment
As if she might return for an encore
But she continues on her way
After a simple jig
Blowing west
In a cloud of construction dust



The good stuff:

Takin' care of business
The light at the end of the tunnel
Double rainbow
Big hairy audacious dreams
Good old-fashioned elbow grease
Comic books
Sultry looks
Yogurt-covered pretzels
gingerbread
volunteers

Monday, November 29, 2010

Alleluiah!


There's a big old cross around the corner from my house that towers high over the landscape, poking up into the rarefied air reserved for skyscrapers, cell towers, water towers, and Mormon temples. Early odds had it that this monument was, in fact, a cell tower. A couple of other churches in town had already monetized their monuments, and given the prime location next to the cross-town expressway, it seemed a logical step. Except this cross was no golden idol. Central Florida Baptist Church built it as a beacon of faith -- and a nifty navigational landmark. "Look to the cross," and turn right.

At first I wasn't sure what to think about having my neighborhood high ground, near Gotha, turned into a gol-darned Golgotha, until I saw the cross backlit one stormy evening at sunset. I keep meaning to get back and stake out a spot the next time the light is right. But in the meantime, this will have to suffice. I shot this back in August, but have been holding onto it for the right moment. After Darlyn and I went to hear the wonderful free performance of Handel's Messiah last night at The Bob Carr, the time seemed right.

The Good Stuff:

Sacred Music
Renaissance Art
Cinnamon pecans
Freshly washed cars
A week full of possibilities
Holiday spirit
Morning rain
Sunny and 70 degrees
Hot apple cider
Crawfish etouffee

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Azaleas


Florida fall is in full effect - sycamore leaves twirling in the wash of passing cars. Acorns crunching underfoot. And color! Sweetgum, sycamore, red maple, sugarberry, persimmon, black cherry, sassafras, and the flowering dogwood. The West Orange Trail this weekend was a riot of color. But my favorite season, by far, is just around the corner, when the camelias will bloom, followed by the azaleas and magnolia. Paradise! 

The good stuff:

A well-organized office
Handel's Messiah - FREE!
Facebook - in moderation
A good book (or three)
A well-stocked library
Scrooged
The morning paper
A job well-done
Dandelion fluff
Maple seed helicopters

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Juvenalia


Spent yesterday going through my home office, digging down through the layers - the art from the refigerator period, the various tools and paraphernalia of the scrapbooking period -- all the way down through the college textbooks I saved because I thought I'd need them, but never did, and into the stuff I did when I was a kid, that my parents shipped me in a big old box to get it out of their house period. This picture was not from any of those periods, but it captures the essence of all of them -- demolition derby, monster trucks, mayhem . . . beer -- rendered as a cartoon, suitable for even the finest refrigerator.

The Good Stuff:

Clean closets - No. REALLY clean.
Old photographs
Sharpies and Post-its
Toy telescopes
Late-night guitar sing-alongs
Vodka and cranberry juice
Venetian masks
The way everything, always seems to get done, eventually
Blue skies, smilin' at me ...
Puppies in passing cars


Friday, November 26, 2010

Winternacht


Cold air is just made for walking at night, bundled up in a long black felt overcoat, snuggled down into a baby-soft cashmere scarf, hands in pockets, shuffling down empty streets beneath a stark, fat moon like a character from a Leonard Cohen song. On cold nights, we are all gifted with rabbit ears, as sound, unfettered by the baffle of humidity, travels fast and far to bring news of things unseen. The chicken-chatter of children, the suspicious report that sounds like gunfire, but is probably only a taxi backfiring. The cell phone conversation on the fire escape, and the fight in B-12. These are the nights for which neighborhood bars with fireplaces and Irish coffee were invented. Comfort food is mandatory.

The Good Stuff:

Long weekends
More leaves on the ground than on on the trees
Fall colors
The sorting hat
Confessional poetry
Passing the phone at Thanksgiving
Getting organized
Tipping points
Poinsettias
Big pots of spaghetti


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Moto


The good stuff:

A long walk on a cool night
A fire in the fireplace
12-cold drinks and a powerful thirst
Leftovers
Improvisation
Three kinds of dessert
Purple and pink sunsets
Traditions
The smell of cookies baking
Breeze

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Bicycle Boulevard Barcelona

Just one of many beautiful vistas in Barcelona. This one, from the Parque de la Ciutadella, looking through the Triumphal Arch toward Tibidabo.

The good stuff:

Coffee on a cold day
The celophane sheen of lake ripples at sunset
Anhinga roosting
Fountains
the village at Versailles
baking cookies
vanilla
the irrational exuberance of dog owners
the potential of libraries
the opposite of conspiracy theories


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Two - redux


As with the butterfly a few months ago, these two wouldn't let me get away with just my original altered picture. They wanted me to show them as I found them.

The Good Stuff:

campus visits
The Swamp Restaurant.
The Swamp
university libraries
Hari Krishna lunch
racoon bandits
pipe organ
carrilon
marching band practicing
balcony seating


Monday, November 22, 2010

El Gallo



More Key West, more watercolor. There's just something about that place.

The Good Stuff

Urban assault chickens
A night out
rainy days
Mondays
Cuban coffee
etouffe
balloon arches
swans at night
the vulnerability of a sleeping vagabond
dueling guitars in the park at dusk 




Sunday, November 21, 2010

World Wide Web



The big blue marble in this pic - actually a blown-glass fishing float - reminded me of the big blue marble we live on. I spend a lot of time, professionally, thinking about this marble - writing about sustainable water strategy and advocating for healthy lifestyles, diversity, and sustainable development. It's easy, in my line of work, to get caught up in all that is wrong on our marble, but like the net in this picture, we are all connected. Yesterday that point was hammered home for me.

I started my day with whole wheat toast, and honey - harvested, as you know, from the killer bees in my yard. Darlyn and I met up with a group from Bike/Walk Central Florida and Commute Orlando to ride our bicycles to the Winter Park Harvest Festival - a celebration of locally grown food. On the road, along the way, to and from, we passed people we knew, some also on bikes. They smiled and waved. Sometimes we stopped and talked, and it struck me as wonderful, the way a couple of winding residential thoroughfares, connected by a paved park path, is rapidly becoming a bicycle highway - well-travelled by a growing number of faces - faces I recognize, because we're not all flying along at 55 miles an hour behind tinted glass.

The recently installed bike racks in Winter Park's Central Park, were filled to capacity. And all around, I saw families on foot - parents pushing strollers, kids lolling in the grass conversing with bugs. Everywhere we turned, we found people we knew. And when we got home, there were emails from friends we'd missed, who had heard we were there and wanted to say they were sorry we'd missed each other.

Next to the Harvest Festival, which was new this year, was the Winter Park Farmer's Market, which is held every Saturday -- fresh produce, homemade breads, beaugainvillea and bromiliads. Hard to find fault there.

Later, in my car, I passed the venerable Citrus Bowl, where the Florida Classic, the annual match-up between Florida's two predominantly black universities, square off every year in one of the nation's truly great Football traditions.

I was on my way to Clermont, where bike club officers from around the state gathered in a conference room at the base of The Citrus Tower - a tourist attraction dating back to the days before Interstates, where, when roadside attractions thrived. When I moved to Central Florida, in 1985, you could still go to the top of the Citrus Tower and see mostly citrus groves below. These days, you see mostly houses, and varicolored ribbons of cycling clubs, churning and burning their way up, down and around the region's verdant rolling hills.

The meeting was organized by one of my clients, The Florida Bicycle Association, which was reaching out to ask club leaders how they might better serve the cycling community. It was a great dialogue, followed by a reception at the Cycling Hub bike shop, headquarters for the Horrible Hundred, a ride named for both its 100-mile distance, and the challenging hills on the course. The ride itself took place today.

Just 24 hours - one turn of the marble between the thumb and forefinger of God. So much hope. So much life. So much to celebrate.  


The Good Stuff:

The Horrible Hundred
Community
The Cycling Hub in Clermont
Five Guys hamburgers
The Winter Park Harvest Festival
Blue Jays at breakfast
meeting friends at the park
momentum
college visits






Friday, November 19, 2010

Apothecary


I've always liked this photo. Not sure why. I'm going to the dentist this morning, so I'm not feeling particularly creative. I'll post The Good Stuff when I return.

The Good Stuff:

Van Morrison played during a root canal
Quiet waiting rooms
Flexi-straws
Walking around with Elvis lip --Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.
A break in a hectic schedule
A fire in the fireplace
The anticipation of mail
Big gnarled oak roots
Snow birds headed south
Butterbeer recipes on the Internet.



Thursday, November 18, 2010

Heron Gone


Great Blue Heron -- they don't pose for pictures, but man are they pretty.

The good stuff:

Kids on bikes
College campuses
Green transportation
Stomp the yard - for real
Fraternity row
Revision
Crocuses
Swallow swarms
Goalies
Goonies



Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wild Blue


One of the art world's dirty little secrets revealed here for the first time: Because Picasso's blue period preceded his green period, the famous artist, in the fashion of the day, simply plucked the blue periods he needed from several large exclamation marks and left the discarded tops upended in this public park. Later, he would realize the error of his ways and become an avid recycler, crushing all of his refuse into convenient, disposable cubes. Thus, Picasso would go on to become known as the father of cubism.

The good stuff:

A forgiving audience
Dilbert
Designer sheep's clothing, for wear-wolves
Free speech - with purchase
FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!
Patents pending
Self-cleaning ovens
Self-cleaning babies
Count Count
A Muppet Christmas Carol






Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde


Whenever he'd go out, he'd hear the people shout: "There goes Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde! Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da." . . . Which was unfortunate, and more than a little disturbing. Plus it wouldn't fit on the book jacket. So he shortened it -- his name, that is, not the book jacket -- that would have been silly, like having yourself buried in an Art Deco Egyptian modern tomb within kissing distance of your famously flamboyant fan base.

Little known fact:: He was born with three middle names. One he had surgically removed. The others he sold for food and firewood during one particularly harsh Paris winter.

A favorite quote: "People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."


The good stuff:

Big Hairy Audacious Grave markers
Jambalaya, crawfish pie, and file gumbo (that's fee lay)
Bluesville
The Writer's Almanac
Cedar Waxwings -- I just like the name - very Icarian.(would that be vicarious?)
The Fringe Lottery
Peach yogurt
Crunchy ice cream
Free deli samples
Anything cinnamon







 






Monday, November 15, 2010

Orchid angel


Orchids do well in Florida. It's not for nothing that Ponce de Leon named this place Florida - which means "flowery" in Spanish. You can argue till you're blue in the face about how pretty the leaves are (for two weeks) in New England, but I'm here to tell you, we've got color year-round. From the tawdry red of the hibiscus, to the delicate pink of the Moth Orchid, Florida is a feast for the eyes. The camelia outside my dining room window is bursting with buds, ready to blast open into a fuschia orgy of the most beautiful lush flowers you could ever imagine. They look good enough to eat. This moth orchid lives at Le Petit Cadeau, a paradise on Big Pine Key, where Darlyn and I go, when we're lucky, to write and count the deer and iguana. Once, we were fortunate enough to go out on a boat with the cottage owners, Dan and Katherine Vaccaro. I reached into the muck and pulled up a perfect - empty - queen conch shell, that sits today, like an orchid, on a pedestal on Darlyn's porch. 

The good stuff:

Time to waste
flip flops in November
geese gaggling
Excedrin
Eden Brent singing Goodnight Moon
muses
Chinese fortune cookies, with fortunes - in Spanish
Hulu
hullabaloo  

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Hogwarts



Amazing use of perspective almost makes you feel as if you're in the book.  Hope y'all aren't sick of my Harry Potter pics yet. Lots of good fun

Last night, I attended Jazz on Edge, a wonderful event produced by Joseph Hayes and Jennifer Greenhill Taylor, featuring creole cooking from the Roux Memories cookbook by Belinda Hulin, who was on-hand to share stories with us, and phenomenal Django Reinhardt-style Gypsy guitar music from Jason Cook and  The Cook Trio. Poet Sharon Hoffmann rounded out the bill, filling in ably for Summer Rodman, who was unable to attend.

Great night! Great food! Great people! Great fun! Thanks Joe and Jennifer.


The good stuff:

A full weekend of local entertainment
Frogen Yozurt
Squirrel Honey
Colombian Burger with Pineapple
Coffee, coffee, coffee, starts with C
Elaborate inside jokes - that you keep to yourself.
eggs and grits
guacamole
The Cook Trio
Django Reinehardt

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Got butterbeer?


Cheers! And speaking of cheers, Darlyn and I ventured to New Smyrna yesterday for the 7th Annual Wham Bam Poetry Slam -- a crazy-good event put on by the great folks at the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Fifteen poets, three judges, no preparation, and five minutes to compose an original piece, based on a prompt drawn from a brandy snifter. Three rounds, and cash prizes. Darlyn had been asked to judge this year. I was a tag-along, who decided, at the last minute, to sign up and compete. What fun! The event was conducted in three rounds, with us writing and performing each piece before continuing to the next round. Each performance was scored, and three winners were selected based on total combined score. This year's prompts were: "Turning the tide," "That's money," and, "Washing my hands."

Here's my favorite, of the three I wrote:

Bard

Washing my hands
I turn and churn the bar of soap
Slip, sloppy suds
And I wonder
As the bar erodes
How much of that is soap
And how much is me
Swirling and gurgling down the drain

10 times a day
for 48 years
365 days each
plus 12 leaps

There must be a whole me down there
collected in the bend
And I wonder what my doppleganger would be like
If I were to crack open the works
And gather me up
All those soapy bits
And squeeze them together
Into a new clean and shiny person
99 and 44/100ths percent pure
Bar Brad
I'll call him Bard.


The good stuff:

k.d. lang singing about the big-boned gal
poetry under pressure
cardinals dogfighting in the crape myrtle
Atlantic Center for the Arts
Bonfires at biker karaoke bars on U.S. 1.
crazy, quirky poets getting their muse on
tiny, cozy cabins amid the palmetto and cabbage palm
deer on the swale
dressing up - for a radio show . . .
biscuits and gravy at It's All Good, New Smyrna.








 

Friday, November 12, 2010

Queue-riosity

Here's something you don't see everyday -- an empty queue line at Islands of Adventure. Oh, sure, everyone was lined up waiting to buy a wand at Olivander's, but still, you have to appreciate the beauty of it. This was taken at 11 a.m.

The good stuff:

Cold beer
Hot deadlines
Old friends
Bold type
Rold Gold Pretzels
Shiner Bock
Finer rock
No socks
Talk
Spock
Sidewalk chalk

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hang on


More random beauty from my trip to Islands of Adventure. Yeah, I know, there are other things to take pictures of, but few as worthy as this lone hibiscus flower, the only sign of life on a leafless skeleton of a tree. I felt as if I were photographing the last star in a dying galaxy. I wondered if this one flower was all that stood between this plant and the compost heap. As an entrepreneur, gritting it out through sometimes sparse cash flow, I could relate. I thought, "Hang in there, Buddy." I suspected this heroic effort would be for nought. In tourist world, even the foliage is expected to perform. Still, like the tiny wrens in yesterday's post, this close encounter of the wonderful kind made my heart race in a way that Spider Man and Harry Potter never could.

The good stuff:

Faith in success
Random peacocks
Ends meeting
Meetings ending :)
Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans
Creative noise
Local heroes
Dinner delivered
Time in a bottle
A Wrinkle in Time

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Two in the bush


As much as I liked the new Hogsmeade area at Islands of Adventure, it's this picture I keep coming back to -- two wrens, keeping house next to the exit to the High In The Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride. They're right there at eye level, and easily within reach. I guess there's so much going on all around that two small brown birds don't peg anyone's whoopee meter.  

The good stuff:

Doing it all, and then some
Shopping for comic book illustrators
Date night
1,000 pictures . . . that's what, like a million words?
Lions, and tigers, and beers
The first Christmas song of the season
The LAST Christmas song of the season
low-hanging fruit
double coupons
village squares


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Instant bestseller - just add writer


Dear literary agent,

As you can see, my next best seller has all the makings of a classic -- a manual typewriter, strong coffee, and lots of leather-bound notebooks. I've even thrown in a clipboard and an uncomfortable chair, to show the quality of my research, and my ascetic work ethic. I have yet to write the first word. But having assembled the essentials, the rest is merely a matter of putting letters on the page and moving them around until they form sentences. There are only 26 letters. How hard could it be? I'll be sure to send you a copy, as soon as I know what it's about.

p.s.: I would prefer direct deposit for all my royalty checks.

The good stuff:
The hundreds of drivers who DIDN'T almost hit me on my bicycle yesterday
Going to bed early
Leftovers
The serenity of a quiet house, when even the dust motes hold their breath
The Dalai Lhama speaking at the University of Miami
The question: Does a designated deity have "human" rights?
The first fire in the fireplace
Austerity
Private sector cheese



Monday, November 8, 2010

Self-portrait


Mama always told me it was important to make a good impression. Here's an impressionistic interpretation of your blogger.

The good stuff:

Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
Butterbeer at Hogsmeade Universal Orlando
Pumpkin Juice
The Three Broomsticks
Hogwarts castle
69 degrees and sunny
Chocolate Frogs
The Incredible Hulk roller coaster
Spiderman, the ride
Short lines at theme parks