SRQ DAILY Oct 9, 2020
Friday Weekend Edition
"One of the ways we continue to support our community is by working with local partners to identify and distribute masks to the most vulnerable populations."
The Bradenton Blues Festival is synonymous with the Riverwalk venue where it is held. That association is by design—the park and the event were conceived in the same whirlwind of ideas that yielded Realize Bradenton, the organization that orchestrates many of Bradenton’s far-reaching arts and cultural initiatives. But the venue presents a particular problem in the time of COVID.
“We’ve always had our guests’ safety at the forefront of everything we’ve done, and there was just no way to keep people socially distanced at the Riverwalk this year,” says Karen Corbin, Director of Development for Realize Bradenton. Fortunately, Corbin and her colleagues had plenty of time to plan, and out of that time, Realize secured LECOM Park as the new site of this year’s Blues Festival. The outdoor park has seating for 7500 people and concessions spaces built into it, which made it a perfect place to host the festival while still keeping guests safe. “We’ve capped ticket sales at 1100,” says Corbin, “and we have assigned seating so people aren’t mulling around like they would be at Riverwalk.”
In addition, the festival got its hands on “enough sanitizer to supply the state of Florida,” jokes Corbin. The festival also made what some might perceive as a contentious decision when they adopted a mask requirement. “It was a hard decision, but we’re trying to stay on top of the CDC guidelines while at the same time trying to be really forthright with our guests in telling them that these are the rules and if they don’t feel comfortable with it, please don’t buy a ticket.” While the mask mandate might scare off some regulars, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. “Knock on wood, no one has been nasty or angry,” says Corbin.
On the contrary, the festival has proven itself to be a treasured part of the Bradenton community. “Most of our sponsors came back,” she says, “and some bought a sponsorship even though they couldn’t attend, so the response has been amazing.”
To accommodate the smaller ticket sales and still reach those unable to attend, this year’s festival will see the return and expansion of its live stream capabilities, with professional videographers hired to complement the exquisite sound engineering the festival is known for. “A live stream really needs to have the technical finesse to work for live music,” says Corbin.
Still, like any live performance art, the festival’s organizers must be ready to pivot at any moment. “If [COVID-19] gets really ugly, canceling is not off the table,” says Corbin. “But the Realize Bradenton board was behind us 100% and we really feel we’ve put something together that’s going to be safe and enjoyable.”
The festival kicks off Friday, December 4th with the Blues Appetizer concert at LECOM Park featuring Tullie Brae Band and Crystal Shawanda Band. The full Blues Festival runs from 11 am to 8 pm on Saturday, December 5th, followed by the annual Sunday Blues Brunch at Mattison’s Riverwalk Grille from 11 am to 2 pm. Tickets for individual days can be purchased online. Last year’s festival sold out before Halloween. 
Photo courtesy of Realize Bradenton.
Iranian-born international artist Hessam Abrishami comes to Chasen Galleries Sarasota tomorrow for a pair of events celebrating the opening of a new exhibition of his work. Curated over the last five months, the selected works offer examples of a wide variety of this abstract expressionist’s artistic output, ranging from large-scale displays to diminutive vignettes, achromatic black and white musings to explosions of vivid color, abstract to figurative, and even some prints thrown in. But if you were to ask Abrishami, every single one is unfinished.
Restless in his bones, Abrishami exists in an eternal search for inspiration that has taken him from Iran to Italy to California and now to Florida, with myriad detours and tangents along the way, and no plan on stopping. “I need new ideas,” he admits with a guilty laugh. “I need new atmosphere.” And in his experience, the quest for adventure and constant movement has only led to more paintings and better paintings. That’s when the work just pours out of him.
“My best painting is when I can paint it fast,” Abrishami says. “Because I don’t think about it, I feel it—whatever comes into my mind I put onto the canvas.” There are no preliminary sketches or grids or plans in that moment, just a transfer of emotion from the artist to the page through the medium of the moment. “I grab a color, put it on the canvas and play,” he says. “I play with the color—up and down, this way and that way—to see what I want to capture.”
Most of the time, that means grand colorful scenes full of movement and volume and a vitality that celebrates the human condition. “This is my dream,” the artist says. “I would like life to be like this—enjoyable, with music, dancing, loving and full of color.” But sometimes Abrishami is angry. Sometimes the world around him becomes too much and the news of the day leaves him sad and depressed. Then he paints in black. “Just one color,” he says, his voice dropping to a whisper. “That’s the reality.”
But it’s never the end. The painting is never the end because the painting is never finished. Working in the abstract, there is no finish line. No final detail or correction to complete the exactitude. Abrishami builds his canvas worlds of line and color and composition and then abandons them to his audience, incomplete and leaving a void the viewer becomes compelled to fill with their own impression. “They finish my painting,” he says. “They can see new ideas, new forms, new colors. They finish it.”
For those interested in hearing more from the artist, Chasen Galleries will be hosting a Facebook Live event from 3pm to 4pm tomorrow, followed by a limited opening reception at the gallery from 4pm to 6pm. RSVP required for both events.
As a bookseller, I’m sometimes called upon to recommend encouragement gift books to cheer up two types of people; those of the broken-hearted set or those stricken with health problems. Rare is a book that fits both categories, but indeed, Val Kilmer’s new memoir I’m Your Huckleberry is a sure winner for either situation!
To say that the book is chock full of interesting movie set anecdotes is an understatement. Val Kilmer lyrically reveals compelling tales from the movie almost everyone loved or had fun mocking, Top Gun. He also tells mystical happenings on set of his admirable performance in The Doors, and from his masterful work in Tombstone of which the book title originates.
Even more special, he puts a spiritual spin on these encounters, never cheapening them to gossip level intel. You’ll learn about Marlon Brando, Francie Ford Coppola, Carly Simon, Bob Dylan and Cindy Crawford (to name a few). The passage regarding his experience with Tony Scott, like many chapters, ended with a frisson so intense I had to put the book down and allow the words and emotions to resonate.
Having experienced a life-threatening bout with throat cancer and several romantic failures, Val Kilmer truly has appreciated every experience in life and his book is a gorgeous offering of gratitude. The perfect book to uplift the heaviest of hearts.
Available now on the online store at www.sarsotabooks.com.
Roxanne Baker is a Bookseller at BookStore1 Sarasota. Bookstore1Sarasota was opened in 2011 with one mission: to bring a high-quality independent bookstore to the Sarasota area. Their passion for the joy of books inspired them in the beginning and continues to drive them today. They offer a shopping experience curated with their customers in mind, and are gratified by the long-term relationships they have built with those who have come through their door: patrons and authors alike.
Bookstore1, 12 S Palm Ave, Sarasota, 941-365-7900, georgia@sarasotabooks.com
Back by popular demand, SCD continues to bring their collaborations to a nuevo level with renowned harpist, Ann Hobson Pilot. This performance is originally choreographed by Leymis Bolaños Wilmott, inspired by la música of Astor Pantaleon Piazzolla. Tickets are $50 in person and $25 for their digital theater. The shows will run Thursday through Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:00pm at Historic Asolo Theater at the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Arts.
Bank of America is providing Sarasota-Manatee 142,000 masks. The personal protective equipment will be distributed through partnerships with Meals on Wheels of Sarasota, Laurel Civic Association, State College of Florida and Mask Up Manatee. In communities across the country, Bank of America has been working with local partners to provide resources to vulnerable and underserved communities hardest hit by the coronavirus. “The health and safety of our employees, clients and communities remain our top priority during this health and humanitarian crisis,” said Mike McCoy, Sarasota-Manatee market president for Bank of America. “One of the ways we continue to support our community is by working with local partners to identify and distribute masks to the most vulnerable populations, such as low- to moderate-income families unable to acquire proper masks, in addition to frontline workers, schools and food distribution centers serving these communities.”
A record number of nonprofit board members from across the region have been selected to take part in the Fall 2020 Gulf Coast Board Insititute. The current session which began on October 6, is Gulf Coast Community Foundation’s first-ever entirely virtual Board Institute. “As a community foundation, one of the most important things we can do is help ensure that our nonprofit partners have adequate access to highly skilled and knowledgeable volunteers to serve on their boards,” said Veronica Thames, Gulf Coast’s chief operating officer and staff lead on the Board Institute. “Due to the unexpected obstacles brought on by the pandemic, we believe this resource is more important than ever and have increased our capacity.”
Today, Lighthouse Vision Loss Education Center officially announces the launch of its new website and can be viewed by visiting www.LighthouseEducationCenter.org. Funding for the upgrade of the new website was provided by the Harold E. and Ruth M. Niles Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. “We recognized that our website was in need of an upgrade and we’re extremely thankful to the Harold E. and Ruth M. Niles Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, which provided funding to complete this huge undertaking,” said Lisa J. Howard, CEO. “We are excited to launch our website and we look forward to hearing from our visitors regarding the new look and easy to use navigation.”
SouthTech has been named one of the 2020 Best Places to Work in Sarasota-Manatee. This is the fourth consecutive year that SouthTech has made the list. This is the first year that SouthTech has been in the Top 10, claiming the 7th spot on the list. Nathan Bailey, CEO of SouthTech said, ""It is always an honor for SouthTech to be recognized as a Best Place to Work. We take great pride in how we work with and treat one another each day, and we are extremely thankful for the individual members of our team. It’s their efforts that make SouthTech such a great working environment."
The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce (GSCC) announces the 2020-2021 Board of Directors. These committed community leaders will lead, advise and chair initiatives that directly support the Greater Sarasota Chamber’s mission to cultivate Sarasota’s prosperity and quality of life through member businesses. These community leaders include: Chair: Dr. Larry Thompson, Ringling College of Art + Design, Chair-Elect: Dennis Murphy, Gulfside Bank and Immediate Past Chair: Paul Caragiulo, Caragiulos Italian American Restaurant. Go to http://www.sarasotachamber.com/ to see the full list of this year's Board of Directors.
Sarasota Opera opened the 2020 season of “HD at the Opera House” with Carmen from the Zürich Opera House on Sunday, October 4th. The presentations will continue on October 18th with Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty ballet from Teatro alla Scala in Milan, and on November 1st with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly from Teatro Real in Madrid. Each presentation will begin at 1:30pm. More titles may be added to the schedule in coming weeks. Tickets to “HD at the Opera House” are $20 for single ticket buyers and $18 for current Sarasota Opera subscribers. All seating will be reserved and distanced for safety. Ticket buyers are encouraged to purchase tickets before arriving at the theater. Information and tickets can be found online at SarasotaOpera.org or by calling (941) 328-1300. Sarasota Opera subscribers who wish to receive the 10% discount of HD at the Opera House tickets must contact the Sarasota Opera box office directly.
Join us online as we chat with octopus and squid experts and celebrate these spineless wonders for International Cephalopod Awareness Days. Grade Level: All Ages, but geared for 6-12 Part of the CILC Community of Learning Series–FREE live, interactive programs from September to December. Registration required. Delivered via Webex Event.
For over three decades, AIA Florida Gulf Coast Chapter has hosted the Sarasota Design Conference, a unique event in a unique city. The Conference aims to be motivational for both attendees and speakers and has created a history of featuring design-innovative speakers both established and up-and-coming who are able to interact with their attendees in a casual setting that encourages dialog and learning. This biennial event is well attended by industry professionals, primarily architects in the Florida Caribbean region. Registration for virtual attendance is open now through October 25, 2020
Please join in celebrating the architectural legacy of Carl Abbott FAIA at this year's SarasotaMOD.
Welcome to Out of the Blue 2020 – a unique Live Online Event and Costume Contest supporting the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Sarasota and Manatee Counties. Throughout the month of October, you will have the opportunity to enter a picture of your best “BLUE” costume. On October 29th from 6:30-8:00 pm, NAMI will host a Live Online Zoom event emceed by entertainer Jonathan Cortez and featuring local artists and talent all in support of NAMI. Our evening will wrap up by announcing the Costume Contest winners with a “Best in Blue” winner in each category. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to have fun creating a “Bluetiful” costume along with an enjoyable – and safe – evening of entertainment.
The Sarasota County Democratic Jewish Caucus (SCDJC) will host guest speaker Dr. Mark Paul in “Climate Change: The Threat and the Opportunities” on Sunday, October 18, 11 a.m.-12:30pm, via the Zoom platform. This virtual meeting is part of SCDJC’s “Nosh and Knowledge” series. Admission is free but registration is required.
Carving a pumpkin is old news - join Fab Lab and laser etch your pumpkin just in time for Halloween! Use CorelDraw to make any design imaginable and then the high-tech laser cutter will etch the design in your pumpkin. A $35 registration fee includes two children and one parent/guardian. Pumpkin included. Hour long slots available from 2-7pm. Only 6 slots per hour due to COVID-19 social distancing.
October 17th & 18th and October 24th & 25th. Tickets for this popular event go on sale to the general public on August 12th at 10am, tickets will be available on the museum's website at www.frrm.org Early access for members are on sale now by calling the ticket office. The Ticket office is open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Special Note for Covid 19; For 2020 the event will operate at 50% capacity. Due to the complicity of ticketing in reserved seat cars, window seats will only be sold. However, you may consolidate your group using unsold aisle seats within your seating area. Mask requirements will be based on Manatee County mask ordinance at the time of the event.
This sumptuous ballet, choreographed by the great Rudolph Nureyev, returns to the stage with magnificent sets created by Oscar winner Franca Squarciapino, and Felix Korobov conducting the extraordinary score by Tchaikovsky. International superstar Polina Semionova stars as the lovely Princess Aurora, who after being cursed by an evil fairy (Beatrice Carbone), must fall into a death-like sleep until a handsome prince (Timofej Andrijashenko) awakens her with a kiss. From Teatro La Scala.
Join Historic Spanish Point for incredible stories on the artists that shaped and influenced history around the world. We are proud to offer this art lecture series with Baila Miller as part of our monthly programming. Baila’s unique storytelling presentations will connect you to the art world in a whole new way. All presentations take place at Historic Spanish Point’s Visitor Center Classrooms. Tickets: $15 for Historic Spanish Point members and $20 for future members.
Thanks to the pandemic, the United States plunged from a record-breaking economic expansion to a severe recession. What choices do we need to make to reverse that trend and secure our economic future? William Dudley (’71-’74) is a senior research scholar at Princeton University’s Center for Economic Policy Studies. He served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2009 to 2018 and was also the vice chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee. In 2019, Dudley spoke about our nation’s record-breaking economic expansion. Shortly after, the pandemic cut that short. With breathtaking speed, the United States economy has plunged from its recent heights to the deepest recession in decades. The American economy is sick. What is Dudley’s prescription to bring the patient back to health? What choices must we make to jump-start a recovery? How long will it take to turn things around? Depending on our choices, Dudley will define the best-case and worst-case scenarios.
Join your Lakewood Ranch Ambassador, Greg Spring, on the third Saturday of each month from 8am to 9am October-March for a 10-mile, 1-hour casual bike ride through Lakewood Ranch. We will meet at the fountains on Main Street. This is a great way to see the Ranch. Don't forget to bring your helmet.
After 47 years of teaching, Susan MacManus retired as Distinguished Professor Emerita of the department of Government and International Affairs at the University of South Florida-Tampa. She is author and co-author of over a dozen books and a sought-after nationally-known political analyst and noted commentator on state and national television news.
In the past, seniors have been America’s most dependable voters and were coveted by political can-didates because they historically voted at the greatest rate in elections. Nevertheless, the country has been undergoing an upheaval that has hard-ened political views and is causing the electorate to make decisions based more on personality than on political competence. Will the 2020 election bring unprecedented younger voters to the polls based on political issues, a trust of the principles of democracy, and a desire to see America regain its prominence in the world?
Called the “most-quoted political analyst in Florida,” Susan MacManus returns to Einstein’s Circle to share her experienced insight with us. She will talk about voting history, changing de-mographics in Florida, and what the numbers are telling us about the outcome of this very conten-tious race.
Online.
Featuring performances and excerpts of Sir Frederick Ashton's: Meditation from Thaïs, Monotones II, Façade, Romeo & Juliet, La chatte métamorphosée en femme, The Sleeping Beauty and Les Patineurs. Additional content includes rehearsal footage, along with coaching and an interview with retired British ballet dancer and former Artistic Director of The Royal Ballet Sir Anthony Dowell.
Illest of Illustration is an annual juried exhibition that showcases the outstanding works created by current Illustration students of Ringling College of Art and Design. Over 100 works were chosen from more than 200 submissions. The talented guest jurors, Justin and Annie Stegg Gerard, made their selections based on the quality of technique, concept, and skill of medium used. Exhibition open by appointment only. Email galleries@ringling.edu to request an appointment. This exhibit began on October 23, 2020 and will end on December 4, 2020, during museum hours.
Ringling College Galleries
Join Claudia Baeza, a Kripalu trained yoga instructor, for Yoga and Meditation on the loggias of the Museum of Art Courtyard for a unique opportunity to gently move the body and calm the mind. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
The Ringling, 5401 Bay Shore Road
As part of Florida Studio Theatre’s Suffragist Project, an artistic celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the ratification of women’s right to vote, this stellar all-female quartet which includes Artist Series Concerts co-founder Lee Dougherty Ross, performs pieces by Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Amy Beach and Marion Bauer. The concert was filmed in July 2020 at Church of the Palms in Sarasota. Women of Note is hosted by Marcy Miller, executive director of Artist Series, and features cameo appearances by Kate Alexander, Ariel Blue and Meg Gilbert. With Jenny Kim-Godfrey, soprano; Robyn Rocklein, mezzo soprano; Gail Berenson and Lee Dougherty Ross, piano.
In the conservative heartland of Boise, Idaho, a most unexpected industry has emerged— commercial surrogacy. Here, 1 in 15 mothers (most of whom are Mormon or Catholic) will carry a baby for strangers who struggle with infertility, for gay couples, and single men from around the world. The local hospital St. Luke’s, runs the most comprehensive surrogacy program of its kind with a network of community, medical, and legal support. Made in Boise is an eye-opening rare glimpse into how this red state became the unofficial surrogacy capital of the U.S. and is redefining family in unexpectedly progressive ways. This surprising story is beautifully told and heart-warming at every level. Tuition: $15. Member: $10. Registration closes on October 10 at 12am.
Online.
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