Categories
Earlier today…
Category: It Happened to Me
Anitra’s on the board of the Glazer Children’s Museum, and their big upcoming attraction is Big John, the world’s largest triceratops, who’s moving into his own exhibit in the museum at end of May.
Last night was the museum’s annual fundraising gala, and as people involved with the museum, we got a sneak peek at the 65 million year-old, RV-sized fella, and he was impressive.
More photos (including one with my ridiculous triceratops mask) later.
We’ve just come from a “hot glass date” at Susan Gott’s glass workshop, which is conveniently located in our neighborhood, Seminole Heights. We opted to make a fluted bowl together, and I’ll post pictures of the finished work once it’s cooled off in the annealer.
As for “glory hole,” I’m using it in the glassblowing sense — it’s the opening for the furnace for reheating glass to shape it. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’re probably more familiar with the other usage of the term. Slate has an interesting article on the use of the term by glassblowing and other-kind-of-blowing cultures.
More photos (and video too!) later.
Last year, I heard about a painting by Jonathan Harris, titled Critical Race Theory, pictured below:
It depicts Black people, led by Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, and Malcolm X, being covered up with white paint by an unidentified White man with a roller.
It’s the perfect painting for the present moment, when Florida under Governor Ron DeSantis is:
- barring public schools from participating in a pilot of the College Board’s new AP course on African American Studies, which he called denounced the curriculum as “woke,” “contrary to Florida law” and an exercise in “indoctrination,”
- gerrymandering in order to reduce the power of Black voters to a minimum,
- proposing legislation against teaching about racism and sexism in universities and colleges with the “Stop-Woke” act,
- and making “unapproved” books in schools illegal, with teachers worries about facing jail terms should these books be found in their classrooms. These unapproved books tend to be about racial minorities and LGBTQ people — surprise, surprise.
Photo courtesy of Jonathan Harris.
Here’s Jonathan Harris’ bio, taking from his site:
Jonathan Harris (b. 1988) is a visual artist who was born and raised in the city of Detroit. After attending the Detroit School for the Fine and Performing Arts, he attended Henry Ford Community College, Antioch College, and Oakland University, where he majored in Graphic Design and minored in Studio Art. Oil paints, acrylics and charcoal are his media of choice. He has perfected and become known for an oil enamel technique, resulting in graphic, high contrast portraits, without the use of a brush.
Jonathan’s work is emotive, with a focus on current events and the African American experience. Bringing awareness to social and world issues, in addition to instilling pride in the Black community, are goals that he strives to accomplish through his visual and curatorial work. Harris and his works have recently been featured extensively in the press, including on PBS American Black Journal, PBS One Detroit, CBS Local, and in the Detroit Free Press, Michigan Chronicle and Oakland University Post. One of the artist’s latest paintings, Critical Race Theory, created in response to recent controversy over the same subject matter, has garnered responses and sparked conversations across social media platforms around the world.
Harris’ art currently resides in prominent collections, including the N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Arts, David and Linda Whitaker, and Michigan State Representative Shri Thanedar. He served as a juror for Canvas Pontiac 2022, and his work has been exhibited at Swords to Plowshares Gallery. He has shown in and curated special exhibitions at Irwin House Gallery, as well as the BONDED exhibit at Beacon Park, along with a team of distinguished Detroit arts professionals.
In 2022 Jonathan Harris was named one of 2022’s Influential Artists To Watch by the Detroit News, and received The Spirit of Detroit Award from the City Council of Detroit, Michigan.
I ordered a signed print, framed it, and hung it up proudly in my home office:
Tap to view at full size.
Want to know more about the painting?
Want to order a print?
You can order one (prices range from US$125 – US$200) on Jonathan Harris’ ecommerce site.
Categories
Just another day at the office…
I got the mask for an upcoming fundraiser gala for the Glazer Children’s Museum, who recently became the home of the world’s largest triceratops.
Common Dialect Beerworks, Seminole Heights’ newest brewpub, held its grand opening this past weekend. Located on Florida Avenue a few blocks south of Hillsborough, it’s the latest brewpub to appear our neighborhood over the past few years.
It’s also a hotly-anticipated arrival. The day I went, Saturday, January 14th, was its second day in operation. It wasn’t just their main parking lot that was full, but both overflow parking lots as well. It helped that it was a bright and sunny (if brisk, by Florida standards — 12° C / 54° F) day. The place was busy, but not uncomfortably so, at least in my extrovert opinion.
Common Dialect is owned by a couple from the neighborhood — Kendra and Mike Conze. If you’re a local dog owner, you probably know Kendra from her other business, Health Mutt, which is probably the most-loved pet food and supply store in Tampa. Health Mutt recently moved from its corner store location on Central Avenue to very spacious digs nearby on Florida Avenue. This gave them a large warehouse space next door, and that space became Common Dialect.
Here’s what I saw when I stepped inside:
The place was hoppin’, even though it wasn’t any time near peak beer hours — I’d arrived at about 3:00 p.m. to check out the place after getting my hair cut just up the street.
One way they’ve decided to make themselves stand out from the other pubs in the area is by being the most brightly-colored of the lot.
Make note of the people in the foreground if you want a sense of the wall mural’s size:
After admiring the mural for a moment, I decided to help the bar fulfill its business purpose and buy a drink.
The line moved pretty quickly, and the staff were friendly and seemed experienced. If they were having opening-weekend issues, I didn’t see them.
With my freshly-acquired beer (alas, they didn’t have any darks or stouts on hand, so I decided to go for vitamin C with a citrus wheat beer), I made my way to the patio.
There isn’t space for a kitchen inside the pub, but there’s a designated area for food trucks, and it appears that they plan to have a different food truck on the premises most nights. On the Saturday I went, they had two: Queen B Ice Cream and the cleverly-named A Boy Named Sous:
I lucked out and a seat on the patio freed up…
…so I set my accordion down (remember, I take it with me to pubs and bars because it’s a magical machine that often turns music into free beer)…
…and proceeded to enjoy my beer and some conversation with the people around me.
There are a number of pubs and bars within cycling distance of our place, including the Corner Club, 7venth Sun, Southern Brewing and Winemaking, The Independent and Ella’s Americana Folk Art Cafe, to name a few, and we’re “regulars” at many of them. Because of this, I’ve become familiar with a lot of neighborhood faces, and there were many unfamiliar faces here.
I struck up conversations (and played tunes for) the people at the tables around me, and they turned out to be new arrivals to the area who’d moved here for the usual selling points: classic houses, tree-lined walkable streets, nearby places to eat and drink, local quirky shops, and so on.
If anything, these new faces are a sign that we haven’t yet hit “peak brewpub” in the neighborhood and all the existing places, each with its own qualities and charms, will be around. One of the reasons we moved here was for the healthy ecosystem of “third places,” and I’m happy to see another player in the mix.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Common Dialect!
This is a still from a Zoom chat I had earlier this morning. I rearranged my home office over the holidays, and it’s looking pretty sharp!