some girls wander by mistake.

this is so ridiculous, i can't even begin. (visage was a central florida all-ages alternative nightclub in the late-80s and early-90s, which paved the way for barbarella/independent bar). i can't even believe this aired with all the snotty anchor commentary.

i appreciated unemployment compensation from you these past many months (while $275/week is hardly enough to feed a family or thrive, it was OK to supplement my irregular freelancing and work-less weeks). thank you for softening the blow of being laid off just a little bit. i enjoyed getting money from you for nothing while i looked for jobs, and frolicked around oregon.

regards,
r

nestled between tampa and sarasota on florida's west coast, gibsonton (AKA "gibtown" and, long ago, "showtown USA") doesn't look a place one would be excited to drive through, let alone set out to explore. rural, industrial, predominantly trailers and run-down houses, this small town's facade masks a fascinating and colorful legacy.



whilst sarasota, florida (about 40 miles away) was the winter headquarters for the ringling brothers, barnum and bailey circus, gibsonton was the wintering home of carnival side-show folk. residents included percilla the monkey girl, the anatomical wonder, the siamese twin hilton sisters, otis the frog man, the dog-faced girl, the 700 pound man, the alligator man, the human blockhead, and the late lobster boy (who was murdered in gibtown). famous performers al tomaini (8'4" giant) and his wife, jeanie (2'6" "half-girl")--also known as "the world's strangest married couple"--opened up a restaurant off the main drag in gibsonton in the early 1940's. though the restaurant closed last year, gibsonton's reputation remains, and thankfully, so do relics from the town's history.

as i drove through gibsonton last weekend, i headed first towards two restaurants: the showtown diner (and venue! though, i didn't stay for long enough to see anyone perform), and the aforementioned giant's camp restaurant.



both were of interest--to me, anyway--as i took a few photos. a man who came out from one of the trailers behind giant's watched me until i got back into my car. thankfully i wasn't trespassing, but the guy didn't seemed too thrilled that i was there. it was then that i realized my obsessive fascination (and internet research) hadn't exactly pointed me where to go or what to expect from gibsonton, save an abandoned restaurant that used to serve great biscuits. idly, i drove around the streets of showtown USA, back through a few neighborhoods, unsure what to expect; thankfully, my curiosity was satisfied by a goldmine of carnie goodness.

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-thursday. delicious greek dinner with mitejen & fictition, including getting to see their cute new abode, as well as catch up on life's many experiences since we last hung out. resolution made: i'm going to make more effort to keep in contact with friends from my past before i dissolve perfectly wonderful connections with wonderful people.

-friday. i left work early, as mandated by our current "lite season" to visit with albertamae and w.h. harrison, two of my favorite girls, in the hot heat of lake mary. after a couple hours of glistening conversation (far less glamorous than it sounds) i left, went home and waited for my bff wishingforrain to make her way into town from her new (nearby!) home of sarasota. we chatted a bit at dandelion, then headed back to the house for some wine and british comedy. james came home early after djing a special event, so around midnight he whisked us away downtown, where we spent a little time at room 3nine and i-bar.

-saturday. after a decadent breakfast of my famous french toast®, wishingforrain and i hit the road, jacksonville-bound, where we were slated to make a guest appearance at a surprise birthday party for scott. after checking into our hotel, we were taken to the venue where the party would take place--we were completely impressed to find a warehouse-style structure filled with the over-sized props, games, and furniture pieces you'd expect a high-end production company (film) and event planning company to house...and this was going to be the venue! basically every foot of the building was filled with something interesting...pirates, farm animals, egypt relics, etc...talk about endless photo opportunities! the party was set to begin at 6, and the birthday boy (who believed he was participating in a swing dancing competition) was slated to arrive at 7. scott was completely surprised when he arrived with his dance partner, only to find 60+ people (family, friends) all there for him. it was very sweet. they ended up doing their number, which was fabulously impressive, after which the dance floor filled with swing dancers. it was a lot of fun to watch, and the music was great.

-sunday we got back on the road, bound for central florida. wishingforrain & i said adieu, only this time it wasn't sad, which was a nice feeling. james and i spent the rest of our evening with coffeefortwo's other half, watching horror and b-movies. out of cabin fever, killer klowns from outer space and the unnameable we touched on every possible convention of the genre (camp, gore, blood, monster, virus). i think the klowns were my favorite.

in the empty lot/zombie warehouse behind my house, i have spotted a wild peacock.



i've heard the strange calls early in the morning, and had seen one walking around the neighborhood about a month ago, but this one (same one?) lives right by me. he's beautiful and majestic--i hope he remains safe from harm (or potential land development as it occurrs).

i want to jump the fence of my backyard and scavenge peacock feathers.

i love this picture. i love that it was the first picture i took, and though i subsequently took like 20 more pictures, this one came out the best. i love that i took the shot and i'm kinda in it, too.



( 1+ here at our destination. )

i biked to work today. 7-ish miles, 35 minutes (only 15 minutes more than driving). it was cool and breezy when i left the house (59 degrees), yet i still arrived to work sweltering. i'd love to keep this kind of thing up for weeks/months to come, but once the heat returns i don't see how it's possible.

on sunday james and i park-hopped around the magic kingdom. this being probably our last visit to disney world for a long, long time, we wanted to make the most of it.

we started out at animal kingdom, disney's animal attraction. i have my issues with zoos, but these passes were 1) for all parks and 2) free, so i justified my patronage that way. the park was winding and large and lush and crawling with tourists, seemingly more than usual. we started out heading towards this big beautiful and surreal tree that fantastically towers over the center of the park. i took a couple shots of it, trying to get a sense of perspective, but the sheer size (and artistic details) cannot really be seen in photographs. we made our way to some jungle-themed safari "ride" (big jeep-type vehicle muddin' through the "african wildlife reserve") which was okay, but moderately cheesy. the highlight of AK, was, for us, the everest coaster! well worth the 1+ hour wait...from the ground it appears to be sort of a thunder mountain in the sky, but in reality it's much more. it's queue winds through a yeti exhibit--in which disney actually secured (blessed!) artifacts from the region showing yeti's impact on folklore and the people of tibet. the coaster itself needs some work (read: falls into the traditional cliche of oh-no-it's-broken), but it's actually a pretty speedy sweet coaster with a startlingly large and scary surprise inside (spoiler warning!).

MGM was a total bust. aerosmith's rockin' roller coaster was closed...again! this is the second time i've gone in the past 4 years and suffered this same tragic discovery: that coaster was pretty much the only reason we even wanted to go to MGM in the first place. we rode tower of terror (4) which was fun as always, but i couldn't shake my disappointment. we walked around the various side streets, but there really wasn't that much to do...a new chronicles of narnia exhibit had popped up, so we did that...what a drag! basically the "experience" consisted of a room full of white carpet, a light post, tall pines dusted with fake snow, and a large screen that played an extended trailer of the film. as the exit doors opened, we were guided like cattle towards a handful of glass cases containing movie-stuffs (nothing terribly exciting) and three of the frozen-in-ice statues.

so we made our way to the magic kingdom--disney world. man i'm an eternal kid there, and all the other annoyances (tourists, kids) always seem to disappear. we rode space mountain, got trapped in the parade of lights chaos, then made our way to the revamped pirates of the caribbean which was pretty awesome. the new addition: capt. jack sparrow, a freakishly life-like animatronic pirate appears three or four times throughout the ride. it made me giggle. it also made me wonder if could be trusted as a magic kingdom employee without some inappropriate-animatronic-petting taking place. finally, we rode the haunted mansion...one of my favorites. we left after nightfall, and i was grateful to have missed the fireworks.

there's some commercial i've caught a couple times, of a grown man taking his kids to disney world, and he catches his reflection in one of the main street USA windows...only his reflection is that of a little boy who is smiling and waving. it's about the cheesiest thing ever, but it's totally representative of how i always feel when i'm on disney property: i'm always that girl in pigtails, age 7, waiting for minnie's autograph.

this weekend, though over-booked with party preparations (7 days!), movies to view, and other obligations, also had two local events planned. it's saturday, and i've exhausted both events without doing a damn thing.

the first event was the orlando film festival, the premiere year of an event that hoped to "support and promote culture and the arts in Downtown Orlando through the medium of film." being a huge independent film fan as well a supporter of local and cultural events, i was very excited at this prospect. but i admit: if it weren't for my friend telling me and giving me the VIP treatment (all-access pass to the weekend's events), i may not have ever heard about it or attended. once i knew, information was scarce: no local advertising, no website up for months (i found out about this in august). october rolled around, and they (whoever "they" are, these supporters and promoters of culture and the arts) only had a myspace page up. not very promising. even an orlando sentinel blog article was released slamming the OFF for it's lack of venues ("who knew these places had screens?"). but finally, last week, the official site (linked above) popped up, and i was feeling a little more optimistic about things.

so, on thursday i attended the cocktail reception in the newly created city arts factory on orange and pine. a series of small galleries (individually accessible from outside entrances) connect inside to create one large factory/gallery. there was a good deal of decent art on the walls, free wine (i'm an easy sell) and orlando's who's who (who? exactly.) present. i met lisa cuatt, the director and owner of q gallery who was receptive and friendly, and in truth her collection was my favorite (modern art, mixed media, mobiles). she said she just moved here when she found out about the factory space; poor girl doesn't know what she's getting into, moving to this city to promote the arts.

while the art reception was fine, things became frustrating when we tried to actually schedule our orlando film festival screenings: the myspace site, official website, and printed schedule we were holding all featured contradicting times and venues from one another. while we had planned on attending friday's screening of tideland, we had no way of knowing what time or place to go to. my friend even called the director of the festival whose reply was "go by the website or the brochure," then--once informed that they didn't match--replied, "the brochure should be right, i think." not exactly a vote of confidence, and surely a recipe for disaster once, i dunno, people actually start showing up wanting to see films. so we missed the screening because the later time (the "right, i think" one) wasn't convenient to attend, but overall the disorganization and lack of PR/advertising left a bad taste in my mouth. my friend's boyfriend, a corporate sponsor for the event, kept saying "what did they spend our $10K on?" all night. so it is orlando's premiere "film festival" went out with a bang...like a flat tire.

my second cultural endeavor for the weekend was a short romp over to the maitland art center for the spore project, an installation and arts-awareness exhibit i was very excited to see. local artist doug rhodehamel's vision of paper-bag mushrooms has always caught my eye, finding little man-made colonies sprouted up on grassy street corners. we made our way to maitland, where the maitland arts festival was going on around lake lily (here, "arts festivals" are really just craft fairs that serve funnel cake. but i digress...). the MAC itself is one of my favorite gems of orlando, and so we walked around the outdoor pavilion (being prepared for a wedding), the artist's studios, and the surrounding areas, only to find the actually museum elusive; the nice lady at the maitland historical center said it was straight through the giftshop (which we told her was locked), to which she replied, "it's always locked. i don't know what the problem is." a resident artist i spoke to confirmed the gallery itself was through a locked door, and while we were there during business hours (2pm on a saturday), he shrugged, "we can't complain, they're volunteers. they probably locked up and went to the maitland arts festival." fine. we left, irritated at the day's events and the day's heat (it's 91°F out today).

it's not that i'm unsympathetic to snags (disorganized promotions, whimsical volunteers) in our community, it's that i'm frustrated that it's always like this. orlando cannot get it's act together culturally. events are disorganized and haphazard, and other than your run-of-the-mill semi-annual outdoor "arts festival," our community does not support cultural events. not to mention this sentinel article pretty much calls orlando out for its faltered efforts. i'm just tired of living somewhere where the most cultural thing you can do, rain or shine, is eat.

1) finally going to wet n' wild. my last "water park" experience was pretty unimpressive, seeing as it was 1990 and in louisiana. traveling on i-drive as a florida local, you can't help but loathe a little of what you see: turnip-turned skin on europeans who really didn't think the sun would be out the whole time, disney-branded-everything, families with a perpetual question-mark painted on their faces, a general exploitation of all things quality (this really captures it). that said, all this tourism gives you no excuse for the complaint "there's nothing to do," so as an early birthday for james, we got wet n' wild. especially noteworthy was the disco h2o, a fog-strobe-light-music-tube experience. the first time through i said, "so this is what it's like to be on drugs!" the second time was slightly less psychedelic but equally entertaining. some girl lost parts of her weave all through the park, which was like a breadcrumb trail for all the waterslides we'd already experienced ("did we...?" "yep, there's that long ratty piece."). welcome to sunny florida.

2) attending some obscure local-independent film award ceremony at parliament house, where randomly, when you're not even expecting expect it, a local surf-rock band (the thrusters) begins playing "planet claire," and none other than fred schneider comes out to sing it. the awards were pretty boring (especially when you haven't seen any of the films up for awards); between the lack of personality of some presenters, and the boisterous hyper-personalities of the "local celebrities" (wanzie, baby blue, billy manes, savannah, miss sammy...couldn't the world just implode having them all in one room?), i was pretty much done. but fred made it worth my while--now at least i can say i've heard "strobe light" in person!

who knew that lil' ol' orlando, florida would be home to a graceland replica. and in the heart of pine hills, no less!



( we went today; 2 more pics beneath... )