Thursday 16 February 2017

Caravan life and more...

February 15, 2017

Lessee, I ended my January blog with my trip to the black barber shop... my
”trimmed” look in the photo below. A few days later I found myself standing outside St. Pete’s oldest barber shop. It didn’t take long to realize long hair and beard were less than practical in my current living circumstances. In I went and got shorn by the shop’s 35-year resident barber.

As I write this on February 15, we’ve been in full rehearsals for almost three weeks... if you don’t think that a dynamic, creative crew of 40+ that includes aerialists, singers, film makers and sound techies, costume and mask makers, welders and fabricators, logistics staff, funding hustlers, a chef and assistant and two of us doing pr and media doesn’t add up to organized chaos, you’d be very wrong! I also act as transport liaison, a job that entails “herding cats!”

In the interim, I managed to spend two days on Treasure Island Beach watching an international kite festival. Forget all you know about your childhood attempts to get a “diamond shaped” kite off the ground, only having it crash back to earth with monotonous regularity. This link (http://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/events-calendar/treasure-island-kite-festival-sport-kite-competition/7061) will provide you with a much better idea of what has transpired in kite technology in the past 30 years: massive, over 50’ long dragons, jellyfish and all manner of exotic shapes and sizes literally covered the sky over the beach. Wait to watch the synchronized “bow-tie” shaped kites dance off the ground and soar in an aerial ballet, some even set to music and judged similar to gymnastics, from 1-10.

I managed to get in a day’s sailing aboard THE LYNX, a 122’ repro of a Baltimore Clipper (http://tallshiplynx.com/lynxx/). With a good stiff breeze, they rolled out all the canvas including topsails and she rocked along at almost 12 knots... not bad for a ship her size and weight. Photos attached will illustrate our boating neighbours here in the University of South Florida College of Marine Sciences Marina.

Surrounding AMARA ZEE are two very large US Coast Guard cutters; the latest vessel to join the Greenpeace fleet painted in “ocean camouflage;” a vessel from the Florida State Institute of Oceanography; a fast cutter from Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and two mega yachts. The rest of the municipal marina is filled to capacity with all manner of sailing and power boats that very seldom seem ot get off the dock despite lovely warm days with great breezes. Photos attached.

The Women’s March following Trump’s inauguration brought out over 20,00 marchers in St. Petersburg... the largest crowd by far in the city’s history. The city issued a parade permit that restricted the marchers to sidewalks only. Boy, were the cops and city officials caught by surprise having expected maybe 2-300 demonstrators! But, I have to hand it to the cops. When they realized there was no way to herd the crowd onto sidewalks, they stepped back and watched the marchers funnel into the streets. I sat on a concrete post right in the middle of the stream coming from the assembly area to watch the action, read signs and compliment folks on some very creative costumes. If interested click on this link (womens march: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/womens-march-surpassed-20000-protesters-making-it-largest-in-st-petersburg/2310416)
So, busy, busy time here. For the last two evenings I’ve been shuttling a camera crew and all the necessary equipment to film major segments of the video components that wil be projected onto scrims during the performance.
Stand by for an update in a couple of weeks.