100 things #48 I truly believe that either you are a photographer ... or you're not.

With so much digital technology out there today, those of us with little formal training in the art of photography are given opportunity to take photos worthy of recognition ... but having the technology does not give you the passion.

Opportunity occurs by way of a driving force that causes some of us to become fully addicted to the creative process of capturing images of how we see the world. If you are affected by this force you know it , and so do others around you. Not everyone understands this desire, that’s why communities like the one I've recently found at Red Bubble are so important. A sence of community gives us opportunity to connect with others that share the same passion, I've missed that connection since AOL shut down our journals.

I’ve only been at Red Bubble for a little more than two weeks and I am already starting to feel at home. Each of us is on our own journey, we all witness and see things in our own way and I look forward to sharing some of those experiences again.

Blogger has fallen short for me, the neighborhood holds little charm. Finding the motivation to keep writing here has felt like such a thankless task.

Annie Girl was able to help inspire me to at least start bare bones journaling again with a 100 things about me. Months later I'm just at 48 and I think I'll leave it at that. If I do continue writing here I doubt it will be the 100 things about me series.

I’ve already met some new artists at red bubble, and look forward to learning from those there that have more experience than I do, I also look forward to offer a little inspiration to others in return.

Right now because I'm so new, I’ve been busy posting photos of where I’ve been, so I can get a better idea of where I’m going. One thing I do know is some additional equipment is so on my agenda.

100 things #47 Thoughts of him echo in my mind tonight ...

as I try to go to sleep.

I close my eyes and I can see the blueness of the Atlantic Ocean ...

I can feel the coolness of the palm tree canopy overhead ...

I can hear the words he was reading out loud to me as we sat on our blanket in the emerald green grass by the sea this week.

100 things # 46 I love Drive-In Movies ...

There are still quite a few drive-in theaters across the country and here in South Florida we are fortunate enough to have several of them close by. There is something a little nostalgic and romantic about watching a movie on such a large screen under the stars, plus ... it's a pretty good value for your buck!

David and I saw Funny People at the Trail Drive-In Theatre & Swap, in Palm Springs this weekend. The movie was a comedy about comedy (stand-up). The story line was good, a celebrity's search for a real life friendship, even if he has to buy it .

100 things #45 I have searched for a Palm Weaver ...

I was having dinner with David on Saturday night at City Pizza, we were catching up and making small talk when I mentioned that on Friday I got a text from my sister saying "I need a palm frond weaver next Saturday."

My initial reaction was to text back saying "good luck with that" but instead I typed "When?"

Because my sister and her family are event coordinators, I assumed they were putting together an Island Party of some kind and their customer was requesting a palm weaver. I know that for a recent East Indian party they did, a live elephant was requested to give elephant rides and they were able to come up with one. (Thanks Angela)

how great is that elephant?

and the elephant handler ... could Hollywood Central Casting with all of it's resources create an elephant handler that looked any more authentic than this guy?

and then there was the elephant handler's assistant ... but that's a story for another time lol. Hi Nikko!

Anyway back to my palm weaver story...

August 15th was short notice but I told her I know where one weaves. After continued back and forth bantering by text we decided that even though I only knew where the guy was on Thursdays, we might find him if we asked around on the weekend.

The minute I told David my text message story he knew just the guy I was talking about. He aslo knew that he was usually at Clematis By Night on Thursdays, so he did not seem all that surprise when I asked him if he felt like taking a look for him since we were already in the neighborhood.

We hopped on a trolley and went to Clematis Street from City Place in search of a palm weaver.

It was a beautiful evening for a trolley ride, we laughed out loud as we made gumshoe jokes and mental notes of who we would ask and where they might lead us.

It's not like we were going to walk up to a desk when we got there and order a palm weaver for the night. Most of the ones we've run across in our travels are street people, not successful palm weaving businessmen.

We knew that the first person we would ask would be the owner of the corner bookstore directly across from the fountain and the park where Clematis by Night is held. He gave us good leads saying that he sees the palm weaver every day, he would either be across the street by the fountain or hanging out with the valet parking attendants and if that doesn't work try Starbucks.

We walked across to the fountain and asked a local who had set up camp for the evening at a picnic table in the park, about the palm weaver. He said "oh, you mean Pablo ... by the way do you have any change? I gave him a buck and he said I would find him at Starbucks.

I sent a text to my sister letting her know that David and I were looking for her palm weaver and asked what she wanted me to say to him once we found him. She asked me to get a sample and a phone number, we didn't really think he would have a phone but off we went to Starbucks.

There they were ... two of them, obviously they set their tables up at Starbucks to make a buck or two offering palm frond roses and crickets to passers-by for tips.

We sat down at the table to chit chat with one of them, the other one was nowhere in sight.

We pulled out a glittery Party Perfect card and invited the man to spend a couple of hours in Boca the next weekend entertaining some party guests by weaving his palms.

Much to our surprise his fear of the unknown was much stronger than his need to earn an extra 300 bucks. He was all to happy to sit at his familiar table at Starbucks and chit chat about the art of weaving palms, but made it very clear that he would not be attending the party. "Maybe Pablo would do it for you " he said. We waited patiently for Pablo to return, when he did the other palm weaver handed him our card and said "Pablo, you're invited ..."

Pablo bounced over to his own table returning with a palm rose and handed it to me saying "a rose for a perfect rose. "

but as soon as he heard that we were looking for a palm weaver to work a party next weekend he bounced and I mean bounced! He didn't come back ... obviously not interested in hearing our proposal and far less able to express his fear and doubts about trying something new that the first guy.

Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised at their reaction but I was. On our way home my sister called to see how it went, somehow she seemed less surprised than I was at the reaction to our invitation.

I told her that they offered to supply us with as much of the finished product that we needed and I suggested to her that maybe she could hire the hunky snake charming guy...

to give the illusion of weaving the palms and he could hand out the roses and say a rose for a perfect rose or better yet ... we could teach someone that looks like a palm weaver to weave. Jokingly I suggested David.

I could hear my brother-in-law in the background saying "that's a great idea, he would be perfect, he's already got the tan, he's already got the look ... David would be perfect."

I turned the speaker phone on so David could hear the conversation, we were all laughing hysterically. His father is from Costa Rico for goodness sakes, we could teach him to weave ...

come on ... take off that hip scarf and give him a straw hat and viola, a charming palm weaver if ever there were one.

I love David, he is always such a good sport. I knew he wouldn't mind us joking around a little after the whole palm weaver excursion we had just been on.

His reaction was to say "oh stop it ... you're using the wrong vernacular here. Don't say you'll teach me to do something you don't already know how to do."

"I would be willing to learn how to weave and then teach you" I whispered, " if you learn how to weave then you can be the palm weaver" he replied. "We both know that I don't look like a palm weaver, but good try my friend." Finally he says okay, okay ... we'll get a book and I'll try to learn, all I can do is try.

My sister said okay, you learn to weave, Coy will greet people at the door and put your roses in their hair and I'll keep you booked. That was that, now I have to find a palm weaving book, any suggestions?

100 things #44 I made a new drum yesterday ...

This is Linda from Earth Wind and Sky, she is the facilitator of many of the drum circles I've been attending. In her work she helps to encourage us to incorporate various ancient traditions into our daily rounds that help deepen both our relationship with ourselves and with nature.

This is the first image of my new drum, a cedar rim and beautiful horsehide. btw ... only horse hides from animals that die naturally are used to make ceremonial drums. Horse represents energy.

The hides are soaked for 24 hours brfore we use them, all of them were beautiful. The one in the photo above was moose ...

Decining to use the smooth side or the rough side ...

Lacing instruction, do not pull with all of your might ...

Lacing starts from North to South ...

and then you work yourself around clockwise ...

Lacing complete and handle tied off symmetrically every 4 spokes ...

The front of the drum ...

100 things #43 For weeks now David and I have been throwing around some ideas ...

about photos we might take to submitt as recession images. My neighborhood does not give much of an outward image of how hard the recession has hit here but there are surounding areas where it is much more obvious.


Over the weekend we saw what we were looking for ... there was a large group of homeless people sitting around a circle near a very long but narrow group of trees on Southern Blvd in West Palm. Some were in wheelchairs others sitting on milk crates. We imagined them as storytellers, news bearers, historians of sorts with the ability to paint visual images and create a greater measure of understanding for those who choose to listen.


We also immagined ourselves driving to the nearest convienence store to buy a case of beer and inviting ourselves to the circle as story listeners and photo takers, that might capture a story
of our own that we could paint for other listeners. We didn't didn't do that but the image of that circle stayed with me all week. Opportunity lost.


Yesterday afternoon we passed by the same location and even though the people were not there the circle was ...





We passed it up then decided to go to the trouble of circling around to take the shot. What we found was more than just an abandoned circle, it was where they live ...


Where they sleep ...
Where they bathe ...

Where they put their things ...

yes, maybe did get a little personal ...

without being invited ...

and maybe we did not get the exact photo that we envisioned ...



but we did get a story, and this is my version ... it would be interesting to hear what Dave would tell if he were the writer here.

maybe we'll get brave enough or lucky enough one day to capture the real story, but for now this one will have to do.

100 things #42 I finally joined facebook

For years I blogged (even though we called it journaling) in a happy place that the locals called J-Land. It was an artsy little community filled with writers and poets, painters, photographers, performers and other creative storytellers from far and wide. I'm sure it was originally intended as just a social network like myspace, blogger, facebook or twitter but the residents created something more there. Something much, much more.

One day much to our surprise we were told that our community was being closed down, just like that ... we no longer had a place to hang our hats. Luckily we were moved with our historys somewhat intact but the new neighborhood is not so much fun ...

Last night I was at the Improv in City Place with my sister, Chris, Brittney, Eddy and David and a conversation about facebook started at the table ... everyone had one but me. First thing this morning, I opened one of my own ... might end up being fun. The photo above is the one I'm using on facebook, the photo below of me with David is where it came from. Always the one behind the camera, there are very few photos of me to choose from.

100 things # 41 My son in -law could never get lost in a crowd ...

This is my 6 ft 8 son in -law getting advice on how to be a good father from Jack and Genevieve at Mandy's baby shower (they made him write it down and promise to keep it forever)





I have a lot more details to share about that party but don't have time to post them now ... this is definately one of my favorite moments of the evening.